New Noise Magazine Issue #35

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Shining a light on the joys and heartaches that lie at the intersection of the LGBTQIA community and the world of alternative music…

I’m hoping that with all the support that people have been giving to each other, the local scenes across the country will start to become more inclusive to women, LGBTQ+ folks, and POC, because if we come together, we will flourish together! Do your part to keep your scene alive and inclusive! Unsure on how to do so? Ask! Educate yourself on what you don’t understand. […]

PHOTOS: JOE VITORINO

FEATURING KORI GREGORY OF WORE

E

ast Coast band wore originally took form as a straight-ahead pop punk outfit called Novelty—but the novelty soon wore off. Now, the ‘90s alternative-influenced trio of bassist Kori Gregory, vocalist and guitarist Joshua Roy, and drummer Ryan Obier are confidently asserting a new vision. Their debut, a limited-edition two-song cassette entitled Different Houses, was mixed and mastered by Mat Kerekes of Citizen and released via Darth Fader Records back in May. The barebones music video that accompanies its emotionally-charged single, “Bleached,” perfectly accents wore’s raw, earnest, slightly gauzy sonic aesthetic.

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Ready to showcase the next step in their musical evolution, wore are poised to release a new single in the early fall: something a little tougher, a little gloomier, that will linger and shiver in the dark chambers of your mind long after the pensive instrumentation and gut-wrenching vocals have ceased and all that’s left is silence.

ON INCLUSIVITY

The benefits of having an inclusive music scene are endless. One that I find really important is the overall feeling of “home” and acceptance.

Many of my trans friends have told me in the past that they’ve never really felt safe or at home anywhere until they started going to shows.

One venue about 20 minutes from where I grew up became “home” for many; you could show up any night of the week and, even if there weren’t any bands that you knew, there were always friends there.

For LGBTQ+ youth, that’s incredibly important. It’s not often that you can find a safe space that will allow each and every person to be 100 percent themself and free from judgement, so having that place is crucial.

I’m so very thankful to be a part of this scene that I’m in, because when I made it public that I was transgender, all my friends made the switch from “she” to “he” very quickly and seamlessly. I was nervous at first that I was never going to be seen as one of the guys, but thinking back to before I came out, I was already seen that way. It’s really heartwarming to know that with all the negativity in this world, there are so many people out there who are willing and ready to learn and grow together. Love and respect goes a long way, so show it!

ON FOLLOWING YOUR DREAMS

When I was around 8 or 9, my aunt bought me my first guitar. I knew nothing about playing it or even tuning it, but I was psyched.

I’d strum that thing for hours, and I even remember attempting to write songs in my room. Instead of putting me down or trying to convince me to become a lawyer or a doctor, my parents just went with it. That’s the kind of parenting we need more of. They cared more about my happiness and saw that as a success rather than the number of commas in my bank account. […] I’m not living the “rockstar life,” making a bunch of money, selling a million records, or playing sold-out stadiums, but I am having fun and I’m happy. Honestly, there’s nothing more important than that in my eyes.

I’ve shared the stage with some incredible bands, and I have nothing to thank for that other than hard work from both myself and my friends. I’ve been able to play shows with A Will Away, Pentimento, Firestarter, A Loss For Words, and—one of my favorite bands— Like Pacific. Getting to play with such great bands, who have proven that hard work really pays off, is incredibly inspiring for me. I’ll never forget the moment when I looked out into the crowd and saw these guys, these professional musicians, watching my band.

M

any hearts weigh heavy with the news of Chester Bennington’s passing. It was confirmed on July 20 that the 41-year-old vocalist of Linkin Park had taken his own life, in many ways mirroring the loss of his close friend, Soundgarden and Audioslave vocalist Chris Cornell, on May 18. Bennington’s work in Linkin Park reflected his life and struggles, connecting with millions of kids around the world.

The subject of mental illness is tossed around in various arenas, but is it rarely actively discussed, and few take the initiative to provide help for those who are struggling. Then, there are folks like Jonny Boucher, founder of Hope For The Day. “The biggest obstacle is silence, and then stigma follows,” Boucher shares of the challenges health professionals face when discussing mental illness. Hope For The Day—or HFTD—is a Chicago nonprofit engaged in proactive suicide prevention by providing outreach and mental health education through self-expression platforms. “Our theory of meeting people where they are and not where we expect them to be allows us to partner with platforms like music, arts, health, [and] wellness,” he says.

Founded in 2011 after Boucher’s friend and mentor, Mike Scanland, took his life, the organization works to tear down the walls of stigma surrounding mental illness. “When I was starting Hope For The Day, I felt like I could

take my passion for music and art to a different level, and that was to help others know that it’s OK not to be OK,” Boucher shares. “I figured it would be a huge deal to break the silence and be a bridge to connect people struggling to find proper resources.”

"...BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE DAY, IF WE TALK ABOUT IT MORE, WE WILL REALIZE THAT WE ARE ONE IN THE SAME: HUMANS GOING THROUGH A THING CALLED LIFE. AND IT’S OK TO ASK FOR HELP." Through their blog and social media, HFTD provide links for those seeking therapeutic help, hold live assemblies, connect people to organizations working to combat stigma, and offer fans the chance to connect with artists about mental health via personal video inter-

views, in which artists such as Garret Rapp of The Color Morale and Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage discuss their own trials battling mental illness and how music helped saved their lives.

on the bag or beer that has resources on the label, Michelin star dinners, we need to do everything and anything we can to get in front of people to remind them that it’s OK not to be OK.”

“Music has always played a very important role in my life, as it does for many,” Boucher shares. “I was more accepted in small punk rock shows more often than I was at school. Music allowed us to be free, it brought us together and spoke for us when we were alone.” From his time throwing down at hardcore shows to later working on the business side of music, Boucher’s love for the art form led him to found HFTD to give back to the community that has given him so much. “[The music] was and will always be there for us, during the best and worst times,” he says. “As I got through high school and then on to college, it became a source of income, but I found myself very burned out on some of the music business life and really wanted to do something else with my life.”

Boucher is referring to a deal HFTD made with Dark Matter Coffee and 3 Floyds Brewing Co., both located in Chicago. The three entities teamed up with the headbangers in Mastodon to premiere a new coffee and beer on World Suicide Prevention Day. The drinks are based on the band’s fourth studio LP, Crack the Skye, which pays homage to drummer Brann Dailor’s sister Skye, who took her life at the age of 14. HFTD is set to work with Mastodon again in September for a special onenight show at The Metro in Chicago. All the proceeds will support suicide prevention and mental health education.

HFTD became his way of strengthening the bonds he found through music.

Boucher states, “I have always thought that if we really focused on the things that make us happy and who we are, it would allow us to realize the things we don’t want or need in our lives and only leave room for the good stuff.” He says the organization strives to share knowledge, “whether it is speaking from stages at concerts around the globe, having our own coffee that features resources

“I feel that the entertainment industry as a whole needs to take a deep breath and realize that there is so much opportunity out there to partner and embrace the conversation that will ripple throughout their communities and fan base if talked about properly,” Boucher asserts. “It takes more than words, though. It takes action. I am grateful for the bands we work with. We all hope that it will attract others to join us in the fight, because at the end of the day, if we talk about it more, we will realize that we are one in the same: humans going through a thing called life. And it’s OK to ask for help.”

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PHOTO: IAN LAIDLAW

AUTHENTICITY MEETS RADICAL ACTION- CAMP COPE INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST GEORGIA MAQ BY SAMANTHA SPOTO

is contrived from me, because I feel like that wouldn’t be pure or real. Sometimes, songs seem like nonsense and pointless when I write them, and then weeks to years down the track, I’ll have gone through something and then be singing it and find the meaning.”

Not only does Maq write incredibly selfaware and powerful songs, she also makes a conscious effort to be outspoken in the punk community. In 2016, Maq and her bandmates spearheaded the It Takes One campaign to raise awareness about sexual and physical assault at shows. “We started the It Takes One campaign because everyone in our scene was feeling really defeated. No one liked what was happening, but [they] also had no idea how to fight it,” she admits. “We figured getting everyone together with the same message would create a bigger impact than bands individually trying to get through to the masses. I think it starts with the bands and the venues to set the standard of what’s acceptable.”

The best stories start with stick-and-poke tattoos. Australia’s Camp Cope began when lead vocalist and guitarist Georgia Maq set out to find bandmates to back her solo endeavor. After discovering that her friend Sarah Thompson secretly knew how to play the drums, the two teamed up with bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich, whom they met while getting inked in a Melbourne kitchen.

Touring tirelessly since their inception, the three-piece have garnered international attention, especially in the States where they’ve signed with Boston-based label Run For Cover Records, joining the ranks of bands like Modern Baseball, Tigers Jaw, and Pinegrove. On Sept. 8, Run For Cover released the band’s self-titled debut album, which originally came out in April 2016 via the Australian label, Poison City Records.

The album—which earned the trio a nomination for Australian Album of the Year at the 2016 J Awards—is filled with soulful, honest, angsty songs. With lyrical topics ranging from personal relationships to the struggles of being a woman in the world, this batch of songs reflects Maq’s most authentic self. “I write because I need to; I never force it or sit down with the intention of writing a song,” she says. “Nothing

“I can’t think of another band on the label that sounds like us,” says Zackary David, vocalist of the up-and-coming band, Blindwish, who recently signed to Rise Records. “The audience that they have, the two million subscribers on YouTube, they’re not used to hearing that.”

back to ‘00s signature stars like Taking Back Sunday and Bayside, combined with sleek production and pulsating electronic beats. “The average listener is becoming more eclectic than they were before,” David says. “There’s so many more options out there, so you’re going to start listening to many things because of it—just statistically speaking, you know?”

LEARN THE RULES TO BREAK THE RULES- BLINDWISH

David is referring to Blindwish’s debut album, Good Excuses, released on Sept.

1. It’s made up of 10 tracks, two of them— the single, “After Midnight,” and “The Maze”—co-written with multi-platinum songwriter and producer John Feldmann.

The others, David says, go back as far as three years, though Blindwish weren’t formed until 2016. “Over such a long period of time, you change as a person,” he says. “Obviously, your songwriting process can change too. There’s no defined genre on [Good Excuses], I would say.”

Blindwish have already shared stages with Dance Gavin Dance, Underoath, Palisades, and Silverstein, demonstrating their malleability on tour. Their sound harks

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Lucky for fans, Camp Cope aren’t slowing down in the slightest. After they wrap up their Australian tour with Worriers in late September, they’ll be hard at work on a new record. “[We’ll be] in lockdown mode, writing and recording what will be album two,” Maq shares. “I can’t see us having a rest any time in the next few years.”

When asked how to best balance a diverse sound within the traditional confines of an album, David says Blindwish’s only concern was crafting good songs, one at a time. No “script” or “bullshit tactics,” as he puts it.

Personally, David says he is most excited for audiences to hear the fifth track on Good Excuses, titled “Down.” “It’s an acoustic song actually, and I think it’s perfect, because the next song we’re releasing is probably our heaviest song on the album,” he reveals. “People won’t expect [it].”

“It’s a great time to be an artist,” he concludes. “There’s no rulebook anymore.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ZACKARY DAVID BY ZACKARY MILLER

Josh Todd—originally of Buckcherry— is excited about the newest chapter of his musical career, Josh Todd & The Conflict, whose debut album, Year of the Tiger, was released Sept. 15 on Century Media Records. He co-wrote the album—which features a hard rock ‘n’ roll swagger sure to appeal to many—with his longtime Buckcherry bandmate and friend Stevie Dacanay. “The best records are written with the most focus and passion,” Todd says. “It was just time for us to finally make something together.”

Year of the Tiger first started to come together in November 2016, when a piece of music that Dacanay had written piqued Todd’s interest big time. He says that he consulted a file of possible song titles that he keeps in his phone

to find something that went with it.

That snippet of a song eventually became Year of the Tiger’s title track and lead single. It tells the story of an individual who chooses a life of crime and meets his end in the mouths of tigers.

The narrative was inspired in part by a character named Mason Verger from the television show “Hannibal,” which originally aired on NBC and is currently on hiatus. Verger trains his pigs to eat people. “It’s tough, because everybody has their own set of circumstances. I try not to be judgmental,” Todd says of people like Verger. “I just think it’s really interesting. When you get into sadistic serial killers, they all have a code.”

Even though he takes an occasional third-person perspective in the songs on Year of the Tiger, Todd says that he is

NEW CONNECTIONS ACROSS THE VOID- POISON BLOOD

INTERVIEW WITH JENKS MILLER AND NEILL JAMESON BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON The darkness lies low and salty, while the psychedelic numbness pats you on the back, warming things just a tad. But don’t fool yourself—all is not well. Ever.

The newly-formed experimental black metal duo, Poison Blood, reminds you thus: the shadows swallow all.

The band feature two of underground metal’s coolest artists: instrumentalist

SOAR play loud rock ‘n’ roll with an ideal balance of noise and melody. They complement their abrasive, distortion-heavy guitars and aggressive rhythms with lush, compelling, four-part harmonies and insightful lyrics—even if they often get lost in the mix. “We want our voices to sound like they’re part of the music, not laying on top of it,” vocalist and guitarist Shannon Bodrogi says. “The feedback in a part can be just as important as a four-part harmony. I like when music sounds like a wave crashing over you. Dynamics are incredibly important, and we all think of ways to have parts stand out.”

In addition to Bodrogi, the foursome includes vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Jenna Marx; vocalist and drummer Rebecca Redman; and vocalist, bassist, and guitarist Mai Oseto. Their songs are often composed collectively, with everyone contributing ideas for lyrics, instrumental parts, and chord structures. “Someone usually shows up to practice with at

HERE THERE BE TIGERS- JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JOSH TODD BY CALEB R. NEWTON most at home in an intensely first-person perspective. “All my records are personal,” he shares. “It’s always personal for me. I couldn’t imagine not doing that as a singer.”

Todd is currently hoping to get on a fall tour following The Conflict’s renotes. “It was a shared notion of appreciation toward similar influences that set the tone of the record. Plus, neither of us in our main outlets tend to venture into anything that doesn’t have an organic footing. Digital or overly polished recordings are sterile—boring sounds for boring people.”

“My other heavy-ish project, Horseback, has a big conceptual element to it,” Miller adds. “Usually, a concept pushes me into new places creatively, but sometimes, I like a more direct channel, which is what Poison Blood is. I really tried not to ‘overcook’ the new record.”

cord release show on Sept. 16 in West Hollywood, California. He also hopes that fans will continue to share in his excitement about his new music, saying that so far, “[the] reception has been fantastic.”

hooked up a thrift store cassette player so I can listen to mixtapes I made 23 years ago,” Jameson relays. “Early second and third wave bands had an emotional honesty which was valued higher than ability. And while a lot of these bands sold their souls long ago, the really early records still capture the mysteriousness and creepiness that moved in like a fog when I was a young man.”

“I think the coolest aspect of black metal is its sense of freedom,” Miller points out. “It’s funny that black metal has become such a defined style. Early black metal wasn’t even called black metal. As a young metalhead, I didn’t think about a difference between black metal and death metal or whatever. It wasn’t really about genres. At the time, I thought it sounded dangerous.”

Jenks Miller of Horseback and vocalist Neill Jameson of Krieg. Their debut self-titled record came out Aug. 11 via Relapse Records. It’s an arty ride through the depths of Hell to the sunny mountains of cubist hope. It’s raw and feely and equally about both musicians— who haven’t even met in person yet. “I assume we’ll have a play date eventually if our parents are OK with it,” Jameson

The band’s debut sounds like something conjured in the vast entities of space where few tend to gravitate. It’s got a real Norwegian second wave of black metal feel to it, offering glimpses of hope occasionally, then violently crushing you down—always and perpetually circular, not linear, like many newer black metal offerings. Poison Blood feel honest, and this is what sets the band apart. “I just

least a partially complete song,” Redman says. “Some are more collaborative than others, but we generally work together on arrangements and transitions.”

MELODY, NOISE, AND WAY TOO MUCH CANDY- SOAR

While tripping out to Poison Blood, you get that vibe. This is a partnership with equal width and equal desire to share a real and passionate force. You don’t get much realer than that.

PHOTO:ERIC OSETO

Oseto adds, “Lyrics-wise, either someone writes the whole song or the responsibility is shared—it just depends on the song.”

“We don’t follow any strict way of writing songs,” Bodrogi notes. “I do really enjoy it when we work from an idea and piece together verses and come up with a song super collaboratively. I’m inspired a lot by books and personal experiences. My favorite songs I’ve written are the ones masking personal experience through a literary guise.”

SOAR’s debut full-length, dark / gold— which came out via Father/Daughter Records on Aug. 25—was released primarily on cassette, a format that’s recently seen a remarkable comeback. “It has to do with how affordable tapes are, for the producer

INTERVIEW BY J. POET and the consumer,” Bodrogi says. “Personally, I don’t have too much preference for what the tangible item is that houses the music. I think it’s nice for people to have something to take away from a show, and making the album art is another fun, collaborative part of the band.”

The quartet rehearse regularly, but since they’re all longtime professionals and close friends, their sessions have a laid-back at-

mosphere. “Our practices are usually less than an hour, and at least half is just talking,” Redman says. “We’re also too punctual, and we bring too much candy to practice.”

Bodrogi chimes in, “True.”

Marx agrees, “Yep, pretty much.”

But Oseto contends, “There’s never too much candy.”

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It’s been an amazing year and a half for Sarah and Mario Quintero, the husband and wife duo who make up New York City doom-gazers, Spotlights. They released their debut album, Tidals, back in May of 2016 to critical acclaim, then were handpicked to open select dates on the Deftones and Refused tour that summer. “It always helps to get on good tours in order to raise your profile,” vocalist, bassist, and guitarist Sarah Quintero says. “That one was super helpful in getting us in front of a whole lot of people.”

When it came time to record the new album, instead of handling recording duties in-house—which has been their modus operandi up to this point—Spotlights decided to work with former Isis drummer Aaron Turner. “We thought it would be cool to go in just as musicians and have somebody else handle the recording,” Quintero says. “I like the way Mario records us, so we’re really picky on who we’ll work with. When we got in the studio with [Turner], we knew he was the right guy.”

Since then, the uber-talented couple— who are augmented by drummer Chris Enriquez in the live arena—have continued that momentum by signing to Ipecac Recordings; creating their label debut, Seismic, which is due out on Oct. 6; and tackling a three-month summer-into-fall run with labelmates and metal icons, Melvins.

The proof is in the final product. If Tidals was a short introduction to the band, then Seismic shows what they can do with a larger canvas. They are still heavy and otherworldly, managing to weave in elements of post-hardcore, metal, and pop to create a hybrid that takes their music to a higher level. This is some thrilling heavy music. “We just wanted to keep

CABIN IN THE WOODS, SANS NECRONOMICON- OMNI PHOTO: SEBASTIAN WEISS

INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE BROYLES AND PHILIP FROBOS BY J, POET Frankie Broyles and Philip Frobos developed a mutual admiration for each other’s talents as they passed in and out of Atlanta while touring with other bands—Broyles with Deerhunter and Balkans, Frobos with Carnivores.

Eventually, they became roommates and,

during their time away from their other projects, started writing together. “We didn’t have release plans or anything,” Frobos says. “We were just having fun, working on some ideas we had knocking around.” When they started playing together as Omni, the crowds responded

“Throughout the whole process of making the record, we were kind of pipelining,” says Sam Boxold, vocalist and guitarist of the pop punk band, Makeout. “We were working with [producer Jon] Feldmann, and that’s one of the bigger names, and then, all of a sudden, we were working with Travis Barker, and we were working with 5 Seconds Of Summer.”

Based in Rhode Island, Makeout started out as a poppy metalcore fusion band called Trophy Wives in 2012. When founding member Chris Piquette opted to work more on the production side of things, Boxold and guitarist Tyler Young changed the band’s name to Makeout and began their studio sessions with Feldmann.

“We’ve probably spent the last two years or so writing the record,” Boxold explains. “The brunt of it was done at Feldmann’s house. About a year ago, we had a whole month where we were allowed to stay at his place, and we just kind of took a lot of the demos that we had—which was about 60 or so—and then, we trimmed it down to, like, five.

Then, we literally took two of those and wrote the rest.”

It’s hard to believe that Makeout haven’t even dropped their debut album, yet they’ve recorded with Good Charlotte’s go-to producer and collaborated with two of today’s top pop punk bands. In fact, those who attended blink-182’s tour in early 2017 may have caught sight of Makeout opening for the trio, playing arenas without even a single CD for sale.

While their debut, The Good Life, won’t drop until Sept. 29 on Rise Records, chances are you’ve heard of this band before.

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Influenced by everything from 2005era The All-American Rejects to Demi Lovato, The Good Life is a nice amalgam of party rock meets radio

OF SEISMIC LOVE AND SYNTHESIZERS- SPOTLIGHTS

INTERVIEW WITH SARAH QUINTERO BY THOMAS PIZZOLA growing and not stay with the same sound,” Quintero shares. “It wouldn’t work if it wasn’t a natural progression for us. As the project grows, we’re naturally growing with it.”

Spotlights have packed a lot of activity into a relatively short timeframe, man-

aging to capitalize on the opportunities afforded them. However, if you ask them, it has all been a bit surprising. “We weren’t expecting any of this,” Quintero asserts. “Making music is something that we’ve always done. We just love doing it. This has gone way beyond our expectations.”

with enthusiasm, leading to Deluxe, their 2016 debut album.

amazing array of tones and timbres out of his guitar. “I only had a couple of drive pedals that I’d use, just to push things a little bit,” he explains. “I pretty much used the same guitar setup for every track. Little changes were made here and there, mostly EQ stuff. Also, the amp was broken.”

With a handful of rave reviews and a year of constant touring under their belts, Omni went back into the studio to produce Multi-task—a fitting title, since the duo played and sang every note on the record. It will be released by Trouble In Mind on Sept. 22. “As soon as we wrapped Deluxe, we went ahead and began demoing new stuff,” Frobos says.

They made the album with their friend and engineer Nathaniel Higgins at a cabin in the woods south of Atlanta.

“We tracked guitar and bass in the front bedroom of the cabin,” Broyles says. “It gave everything a really nice, close, dry sound. Vocals were recorded in a small room attached to the kitchen. Drums were recorded earlier with Nathaniel at his house.” The result is a fresh, jittery set of tunes, with echoes of new wave dance beats, ‘60s pop harmonies, and post-punk energy. Broyles gets an

Frobos complements the unrestrained sounds of Broyles’ guitar with his inventive bass playing and vocals that dance around the beat, sometimes talking as much as singing. “I started writing the vocal parts separately from playing the bassline,” Frobos says. “I think that helped make [the vocals] more unique than when I was cutting corners to make it easier for myself to play and sing at the same time. Frankie and I work on the music based on some spontaneous idea or riff, and then, everything slowly falls into place. We just do what feels right and sounds cool.”

BIG TIME SUCCESS, SEALED WITH A KISS-MAKEOUT

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST SAM BOXOLD BY NATASHA VAN DUSER pop, as displayed most noticeably on the band’s first single, “Crazy.” “We chose ‘Crazy’ because it realistically kind of shows people what our band is without being flaunty or anything like that,” Boxold notes. “It’s a fourchord song; it’s a pop song. It’s nice, it flows, and it also shows how far into the pop realm we could go versus,

like, how far into a punk realm we could go.”

Even though Makeout haven’t yet announced any upcoming tours, Boxold hints that they will be hitting the road this October in support of their debut.

Even after years of touring, Dan Pantenburg still hits up karaoke bars on Friday nights to test out new onstage moves. “I have a hard time sometimes, like, not looking pretty happy onstage,” he laughs, “even though you want that cool, indifferent rockstar look.”

He has a reason to be happy, though.

Pantenburg is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Autonomics, a garage pop trio from Portland, Oregon.

After touring in the U.S. and Europe for years on their own dime, the band’s self-released debut album, Debt Sounds, dropped on Sept. 8. “It cost more than our van,” Pantenburg said in their press release. “It’s our most layered record to date, and it was expensive as fuck for us to make as an unsigned band. We financed the entire record working fulltime jobs between tours.”

Debt Sounds is a collection of 10 songs that were refined for years on the road.

Pantenburg jokes that many of the them were play-tested live “a billion times” before entering the studio. The result is an amalgam of danceable, garage-toned power-pop tunes akin to Weezer and Wavves. “If there was one song [from Debt Sounds] to show aliens to try to get them moving […], I guess it would probably be the song ‘Bad Blood,’” Pantenburg says.

“It’s a really simple jam. A little The Thermals-y—who are a huge influence on us— but it’s got this dance rock thing too, like, maybe a little Springsteen [mixed in].”

As Autonomics prepare to hit the road again for a West Coast trek in October, Pantenburg continues to ready himself for the stage in new and meaningful ways. “I’m still figuring out where my comfort zone is,” he says. “As I’ve

RAVENOUS FOR DARK ROCK ‘N’ ROLL- THE DAHMERS

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST CHRISTOFFER KARLSON BY KAYLA GREET From Kristianstad, Sweden, The Dahmers are a four-piece power-pop band who mainly write songs about horror and things that go bump in the night.

Though all the band’s members are native to Sweden, they write their songs

primarily in English. Guitarist Christoffer Karlsson says, “Most bands sings in English, and most of the bands we listen to do, so we find it quite naturally.”

He adds that it is easier to reach a wider audience this way, and notes, “Besides, it

For a band who formed around the jokey 20-something “midlife crisis” of wanting to cure everyday boredom, Backswing have skyrocketed into the scene and aren’t showing signs of coming down any time soon. The group came together in 2015 with the mindset that they would perform once a month for friends at their local Detroit bar—however, listeners and fans craved more. “It was never supposed to be anything serious,” vocalist Marissa Ward says. “After our first show, we had a lot of demand to play more shows, so we started hopping on random gigs.”

have as much of a place in the scene as men. “There wasn’t a lot of female representation with a lot of bands, and if there was, it really played on more of a sexual nature,” Ward states. “If there was, it was more of a ploy, and they were more of a prop onstage and not someone who has something important to say.”

Within the band’s first four months, they toured with Expire, Knocked Loose, and Counterparts at their sold-out show at The Shelter in Detroit. They smacked the umbrella term “Detroit Heavy” onto their name and left interpreting the term up to their fans. From there, Backswing became more involved. Ward wanted to show the world that women

The 23-year-old uses her platform as a way to talk about heavy issues that not only women, but also people of color and queer people in the scene face daily.

“It’s not just the boys club anymore,” Ward adds. “Everyone can do it. Fair representation will make people feel more welcome—at least in my eyes.” One of Backswing’s songs, “Corset,” harshly discusses the blatant sexism women deal with, causing discomfort for some audience members. “I’m like, ‘Yes, please be uncomfortable,’” Ward states. “I think guys are uncomfortable because they are not used to any strong female presence yelling at them, saying, ‘This is how I

HE’S A MANIAC, MANIAC ON THE FLOOR- AUTONOMICS

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST DAN PANTENBURG BY ZACKARY MILLER gotten a little older, I’ve gotten more comfortable. Everyone goes through those phases where they feel awkward.”

Pantenburg refers to Dan Boeckner—of Wolf Parade, Divine Fits, and Operators fame—and his electro post-punk stutter as an influence on his newly tooled stage presence. He’s unsure if he can pull it off,

but just like the songs on Debt Sounds, he’ll have plenty of time to refine it onstage—probably another “billion times” if he has his way. “The fact that we’re […] getting to play music for people that, you know, you wouldn’t think would normally hear [us] in a thousand years, is pretty kickass,” Pantenburg concludes.

would probably sound kind of ridiculous to sing those kinds of lyrics we have in Swedish.”

the Dead of Night—released back in April via Lövely Records—drummer Karl-Oskar Hansson is responsible for all the art on the band’s albums and merchandise.

“He is a great artist and, of course, as you can guess, a big fan of old-school horror,” Karlsson shares. “We are lucky to have him in the band.”

The group booked their first gig before they decided on a name, and The Dahmers was one of the first suggestions that everyone liked, so it just stuck. “It’s more that we have a fascination with horror and the mysterious dark side of the human mind—you know, things that kind of gives you the creeps,” Karlsson explains. But don’t let the horror punk angle fool you: musically, they’re more akin to Jay Reatard than the Misfits. “It would be incredibly boring to limit yourself just to satisfy people’s expectations,” Karlsson claims. “We don’t like that kind of boundaries—rock ‘n’ roll is a wild animal which needs to be free.”

Coupling lyrics about monsters with a spooky garage punk sound and ‘80s horror movie poster-inspired cover art, The Dahmers have their pastiche nailed down. Aside from their latest record, In

At the moment, the band have no plans to venture out to the U.S., though Karlsson hints at the possibility. “We’ll see what comes up for next year,” he teases.

“Maybe we’ll see each other then, who knows?” For now, Karlsson says, “We’ve been promoting the last record for a while now and are definitely building up an appetite for getting back in the studio. […] We have a bunch of songs lying and waiting, just wanting to be released and spread like a disease upon the world.”

Just like a good jump scare in a slasher movie, you can’t let your guard down around The Dahmers.

RIGHTEOUS FEMALE REPRESENTATION- BACKSWING PHOTO:KYLE SMUTZKI

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MARISSA WARD BY NATALEE COLOMAN feel, and you’re going to listen, because I’m the one with the microphone and you’re not.’”

Backswing’s five-song EP, SOS—which stands for Smash On Sight—was released on vinyl Aug. 25 through

Demons Run Amok Records. They are also working on a full-length album, which will have a completely different sound due to their current drummer’s metal influence. “While the sound may change, the message will still be there,” Ward assures.

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11

GRAVE PLEASURES Finland’s Grave Pleasures—who arose from the ashes of Beastmilk—have returned in all their apocalyptic glory to take the world by storm—or at least dance their cares away before an orange buffoon finds the nuclear codes. Their sophomore record, Motherblood—out via Century Media on Sept. 29—is a triumphant record that hints at the power of adversity.

The band have dealt with a publicize name change and member turnover, and Beastmilk’s landmark debut, 2013’s Climax, has weighed on the remaining members like an albatross ‘round their necks.

Vocalist Mat McNerney feels exuberant about Grave Pleasures after everything they’ve gone through, and for good reason. “I am very happy about this new album,” he says. “I think we’re finally—after all the small dramas—in a place with this band that I always wanted to be in.

The lineup is solid, the songs are there, and the record is indeed a joyous one. It’s a record brimming with elation. We can see cracks of light in the darkness and a rope out of the abyss. The music reflects where we are at as a band too. It’s on fire. We’re desperate, and there’s rage in what we do again. In a way, though, what we went through as a band—with all the heartaches of name changes and lineup

PHOTO: ANTON COENE

changes—has made the band what it is.

It’s all been very apt, and I am very much of that Tibetan mind that everything happens for a reason.”

Motherblood exudes a certain macabre enjoyment of our imminent doom, evident in the great line from “Joy Through Death”: “Death is the meaning of life.”

“The core of this album has been about what inspired the band from the beginning,” McNerney explains. “When I wanted to make post-punk music, it was always the contradictions and the clashes in the sound and themes that attracted me to the roots of the music. It’s made in sad times about sad and dark times, but there’s this shameless jubilation about the songs. You dance away your pain. That’s something we wanted to amplify within the songs. We wanted it to be about catharsis. Everything is going to hell, but isn’t it beautiful? I mean, people talk about ‘Well, that’s a nice way to go’ about certain forms of death. I think death itself is a beautiful way to go.”

McNerney’s embracing of death led to a very cathartic writing and recording experience. “The album isn’t really about a hypothetical World War III. It’s more a sense that we’re post-apocalyptic. We

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MAT MCNERNEY BY NICHOLAS SENIOR have to come to terms with our extinction being inevitable for us to be able to understand how to deal with it,” he asserts. “The music and the intent behind Motherblood is like a purification ritual.

It’s a cleansing that brings peace and catharsis. It’s a positive message rather than one about war. War is an inevitable truth, but if we accept that, I think we can concentrate on the parts of our humanity that are able to shine through and live on. We brought the music up and out from a personal place, but I think the message is communal. Let’s dance while this whole shithouse goes up in flames.”

sting out of current events. “Practically speaking, we should judge ourselves by our actions,” McNerney states. “I think about that with song titles and the lyrics.

That’s why we have songs that equate mass murder or genocide with lust or love.”

“Perhaps all we’re doing [in Grave Pleasures] is using the concept of nuclear destruction as a way to explore the idea of love,” he muses. “It might just be a metaphor, albeit a very dark one. It’s about love, fear, sex, and death—like all good rock ‘n’ roll should be.”

Regardless, this mindful view of humanity’s darkness doesn’t take the

THIS PATCH OF SKY “Our ultimate goal is to create an album that sounds like a movie soundtrack,” guitarist Kit Day comments about the process of writing for his instrumental postrock outfit, This Patch Of Sky. That concentration on exactly what the Eugene, Oregon-based band wanted to achieve has led to the creation of These Small Spaces, out Sept. 22 via Graphic Nature Records, an imprint of Equal Vision Records that was founded by producer Will Putney.

These Small Spaces does play out like a soundtrack, utilizing emotional builds throughout the length of every track, stretching the motif without breaking its power. “We want emotions driven by it, we want the ups and downs,” Day explains.

“Bella Muerte” is a perfect example of This Patch Of Sky’s infectious writing. The cello-driven lead

12 NEW NOISE

sounds like a leaf, ever swaying in the wind, eventually falling to earth at the end of its cycle. “‘Bella Muerte’ stands for beautiful death,” Day shares, adding that the track seeks to honor and evoke loved ones who have passed away or taken their own lives. “We set the mood to where it sets out kind of slow, kind of beautiful.”

What is truly beautiful is the passion placed into these songs, telling stories without having lyrics to communicate the narrative. “Her Beating Wings” starts soft with actual heartbeats, a clever use of detail to hint at the song ’s meaning.

“I wrote that song shortly after I found out I was having a third daughter,” Day reveals. “It was a trying time in my life and my wife’s life, because she wasn’t supposed to have more kids. She is diabetic, and it was the most trying pregnancy

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST KIT DAY BY SEAN GONZALEZ ever. We almost lost our daughter two times, and that song came together.” The song starts with a rather bleak tone, but flourishes to an uplifting ending, showcasing the art of storytelling without words.

This Patch Of Sky are an act who represent the beauty of post-rock instrumentation.

“Instrumental music, as a whole, it sometimes is a background filler,” Day explains,

“but other times, you listen to it and don’t realize you’re listening to it, and sometimes, it’s just there in your mind.” This sextet provide a nine-track release gifted with tender moments that are brought to life through the artistic identity of just music.

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13

USNEA It’s probably safe to assume that there’s a lot of overlap between fans of science fiction and fans of doom metal. So, it’s probably also safe to assume that a lot of people immediately recognized the title of the lead single Portland doom quartet Usnea dropped in July ahead of the release of their third full-length album, Portals Into Futility, out Sept. 8 on Relapse Records.

The single, “The Lathe of Heaven,” shares its title with the 1971 novel

by American sci-fi and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin, and if the intersection of sci-fi and doom metal is something that interests you, you’re in luck. “It’s fairly appropriate as the first song we premiered from the record, because, thematically, that song explores a lot of the concepts that we go further into with the other songs,” vocalist and guitarist Justin Cory says.

“Being that the concepts within each song are an exploration of speculative and dystopian fiction, the binding concept of the whole record is one of human delusion, our dreams of peace and immortality and social evolution met with the bitter cold blade of a dark and treacherous reality.”

Cory explains that Le Guin has been a favorite of his and bassist and

vocalist Joel Williams’ since before they met and formed Usnea together with guitarist Johnny Lovingood and drummer Zeke Rogers. It would seem the whole band are residents of that overlap between sci-fi and doom fans, given that each of the five songs on Portals Into Futility was inspired by a different sci-fi novel. Album opener, “Eidolons and the Increate,” was written in response to Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun” series, specifically what Cory calls “the dark psychedelia of the first book in that series, ‘The Shadow of the Torturer.’”

“Demon Haunted World” is named after the Carl Sagan work of the same name, which is more of a nonfiction book about scientific exploration than science fiction, but apparently, a rich vein for the band to mine all the same. “Sagan and that book were the main source of inspiration for the concept of our last album, Random Cosmic Violence, in 2014,” Cory says, “and his influence and thought process definitely still leave their shadow on us in this more recent work.”

“Pyrrhic Victory,” meanwhile, takes “its schizophrenic paranoia and delusional religious claustrophobia” from the novel, “VALIS,” by Philip

PHOTO: ORION LANDAU

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JUSTIN CORY BY MIKE GAWORECKI K. Dick, and the album’s epic closing track, “A Crown of Desolation,” was influenced by “one of the most epic science fiction tales of all time,” according to Cory: Frank Herbert’s “Dune.”

It’s no wonder that now, as the Trump administration brings to life a new dystopian sci-fi tale every day—sales of “1984” have spiked for a reason, after all—Usnea chose to focus on these dark tales of folly and hubris leading to the downfall of mankind.

“Dune,” in particular, “felt eerily prescient in many ways,” Cory says, “with its critique of power, empire, corruption, and human avarice that so completely mirror our current

global

world

power

dynamic.”

But Portals Into Futility is also, in many ways, a logical extension of the path Usnea have been treading since Random Cosmic Violence, which deals with “the jarring reality that we are all here not as organized or ‘designed’ beings, but as the result of random cosmic violence,” Cory says. “This album takes the next steps after that conclusion in asking, ‘What, then, are we?’ What should we become, and is it possible to become what we want to be given our history and our likely future as predicted by scientific inquiry?”

GRAVDAL It’s been seven years between albums for Norwegian experimental black metal group Gravdal, but their excellent third record, Kadaverin— released Aug. 11 via Soulseller Records—proves the band are, in fact, just as alive as ever.

While Gravdal are known for their nontraditional approach to the kvlt style, their shapeshifting sound is taken to new heights here. Kadaverin is extremely well-balanced, as guitarist and main composer Elefterios “Phobos” Santorinios has done a fantastic job of melding disparate sounds and influences into a cohesive, transcendent listening experience. The record is progressive and experimental, with moments of soul-shattering gothic doom, a saxophone solo, and just enough psychedelic inflections to make the blast beats—when they do come—a real treat.

14 NEW NOISE

However, throughout all the stylistic twists and turns, Gravdal always carry the ethos of black metal on their studded sleeves. Phobos agrees and expands, “The changes in our music are a good mix of a natural evolution as a band and as individual artists and, also, something I felt we needed. I wanted a different sound compared to our two first records and to try out new things—like the saxophone, for example. I think it’s important to grow as a band instead of releasing the same album all over again.”

That drive to pave his own—left hand— path influences everything Phobos does with Gravdal. Kadaverin has such a unique style. It’s clear the band wanted to blaze their own sonic trail with this record, but is Phobos concerned about it being “black metal” enough? “I am not concerned at all about being what people might call ‘black metal enough’ or not,” he assures. “I am confident in what we do and what we stand for, and,

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST ELEFTERIOS "PHOBOS" SANTORINIOS BY NICHOLAS SENIOR in my opinion, it is black metal.”

To Phobos, black metal is more about the essence than rigid guidelines. So, what did he want to discuss with this record? There’s a pervasive sense of grand darkness. “It’s all about liberating yourself,” he says. “Live your life to the fullest, instead of going through life being submissive to something—for example, religion. [It’s about] not being like the walking dead,

so to speak, hence the title Kadaverin, which is the chemical name for the smell of death.”

Thankfully, Gravdal have come to life on their excellent third record.

Kadaverin is proof positive that the band are firing on all creative cylinders and more concerned with doing their own thing than the perceived “right” thing. That choice pays off in spades.

LOOMING Springfield, Illinois-born band, Looming, represent a myriad of sounds that aren’t easy to pin down on the first listen.

They’re all over the place, but in a good way, pushing the boundaries of indie, post-rock, grunge, and emo, driven on by vocalist and bassist Jessica Knight’s soul-piercing voice. Now, they’re following up 2015’s Nailbiter with Seed, their sophomore LP, out Sept. 29 via No Sleep Records.

When writing Seed, things were switched up a bit for the five-piece, with Knight in Austin, Texas, and vocalist and drummer Brandon Carnes in Pittsburgh.

This helped frame their musical dynamic and allowed for exploration. “We tried to push ourselves further for this one, so the new album has rhythmic motifs that tie all of the songs together,” Knight says.

“We also moved to different cities between Nailbiter and Seed, so it was written entirely long-distance or in-studio, and that was different for us as a band.”

Of the record’s theme, she notes, “Lyrically, it has to do with centering your-

PHOTO: NICK ZIMMER

self in new places. Musically, it has very similar themes in the sense that, for us, it was about finding ourselves—or keeping ourselves true—while exploring new areas.”

There’s a more accessible edge to Looming’s sound this time around, and Knight lists bands like Jimmy Eat World, hometown heroes Park, and British band TTNG—or This Town Needs Guns—as influences, as well as indie-pop acts such as Lorde and Björk. “We are rooted in Springfield, Illinois, and most of us grew up around Midwestern emo, which I think shows in our music,” Knight says.

“We also incorporate a lot of pop elements, because who doesn’t love a good pop song?” she laughs.

“Majesty” is an example of this poppy turn, and it also appears on “Waves,” an electric, synth-fueled song that Knight deems a “beautiful experiment.” “‘Waves’ was something we thought could work thematically on the record, and it does,” she adds. “The electronic drums add texture to the album, but

I N T E R V I E W W I T H V O C A L I S T / B A S S I S T J E S S I C A K N I G H T B Y R E N A L D O M ATA D E E N when we play live, we use real drums, and it provides an entirely different perspective to the song.”

“Waves” is one of Knight’s personal favorites, as well as the edgier melodic rocker, “Queen,” which coincidentally features TTNG’s Henry Tremain on backing vocals. Elaborating on this particular track, she divulges, “It pokes fun at the idea of royalty and brings it back down to ‘Remember that we all started somewhere’ and asks the question

‘Where are you, really?’”

However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how vulnerable, existential, and sentimental Knight gets on Seed. When asked if this kind of depth is creatively risky, she emphatically states, “The only way we know how to write an album is to expose ourselves completely. The only way to make a lasting impression is to make it real, and that is what makes music enjoyable to us. So, no. It doesn’t feel risky.

It feels right!”

LEPROUS In progressive rock, doing something different is not always seen as truly “progressive.” Norway’s premier prog rock band, Leprous, have taken some bold steps on their latest opus, Malina—released Aug. 25 via InsideOut Records—and this may not please every progressive rock and metal fan.

These subtle but significant changes are instantly evident from the record’s beautiful cover art. There’s a brightness and energy to Leprous’ latest work, and it gives these songs a much greater sense of life. Gone is any semblance of extreme metal, and the songs are less interested in being overly showy. Leprous’ trademark technicality remains, but now serves to augment these moody masterpieces, making for a record that rewards careful and continuous listening.

“It just started living its own life,” vocalist and keyboardist Einar Solberg explains. “Once you start noticing all these things that you want to have happen, suddenly we realized the direction we wanted to take the album, and it’s a different direction than the previous one. I would say that ‘atmospheric’ is a pretty good word to describe it, especially to describe the difference between this one and [2015’s] The Congregation, because

16 NEW NOISE

that one is pretty tight and it doesn’t sound as atmospheric. This one, and it might be the guitars, but it sounds more like a rock album than a metal album, in a way.”

“Also,” he continues, “the [2016] live album, [Live at Rockefeller Music Hall], contributed a little bit. That was just played as it is; there’s nothing added in the mix afterward. Even though we thought it didn’t sound as perfect as we’d like, the songs felt more alive, and we realized that’s something we wanted to recreate on the new album. We wanted to make it more living, more than The Congregation.”

However, Solberg is careful to note that he did not want the change to move the band’s sound away from what Leprous actually are. “We have a lot of different tracks on the album—you have ‘Bonneville,’ which is very dynamic and super atmospheric. When that song starts, as the first song, you realize, ‘Oh, this is a very different album,’” he laughs. “It’s important to us that each album has its own identity, but still, you can very easily hear that it’s Leprous. I like when bands are changing their sound on each album, but I don’t like when

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/KEYBOARDIST EINAR SOLBERG BY NICHOLAS SENIOR they lose their identity, so there’s a balance.”

While change and balance informed the music, harsh reality informed some of the lyrics. “There is no theme for the whole record. There are already too many concept albums in the prog scene,” he assures, laughing.

“The title, Malina, means ‘raspberry’ in Slavic. That comes from some lyrics that I wrote when I was in Georgia, the country. I was at my brother’s wedding there, and we were just by the beach, and there was this very, very old lady. She could barely walk, but she had to walk around for the entire day selling raspberries. She was shouting, ‘Malina! Malina!’ It made

a very big impression on me, because it was so sad to see what people have to do just to survive. When you’re almost 90 years old, you may still have to walk around for an entire day trying to survive.”

So, what does Solberg ultimately want people to take away from Malina? “The danger of playing prog for people is that, sometimes, it’s not art anymore, and that can be a problem,” he admits. “For us, it’s very important that the songs make people feel something.”

ACEPHALIX Half a decade has passed since San Francisco’s Acephalix released their sophomore album, Deathless Master, in 2012, but that lapse has left nary a cobweb on the barrow of this headless monstrosity.

Among their rancid ranks are members of Vastum, Necrot, and Depressor, none of whom are death metal neophytes.

Acephalix’s third album, Decreation, is the culmination of their five-year stasis. The upcoming record, set to drop on Sept. 22, is the band’s first for 20 Buck Spin—also home to the aforementioned Vastum—and Acephalix guitarist Kyle House credits label head Dave Adelson as one of the motivators behind its release.

Acephalix originally formed around a mutual love of crust. Their first album, 2010’s Aporia, is a raw, scathing, bass-laden record baptized in the tradition of Discharge and Amebix. The songs are short, raucous, and unapologetically crunchy. The sound on Aporia is not a far cry from the brutish death metal of Acephalix’s later output; Deathless Master and especially Decreation are repulsive, heavy, hideous death metal albums. “The deeper we looked in-

side,” House says, “the uglier the beast to behold.”

“Crust and death metal have a long [shared] history,” vocalist Daniel Butler further explains. “Death metal demos sound especially punkish [and] crusty. I’ve always been interested in these links.”

Butler is absolutely correct. Decreation is a crusty, primitive death metal album that will have veteran fans and greenhorns alike headbanging in unison. On this release, listeners should expect barbarism at its finest.

“Upon This Altar,” the opening track, is a merciless menagerie of hacking riffs that refuse to leave any skull uncloven. Tracks like “Mnemonic Death” and “Excremental Offerings” sew on bits of the band’s crust influences to segments of death metal progenitors like Rottrevore and Suffocation.

The horrific album art—courtesy of Adam “Nightjar” Burke—helps to enflesh some of Decreation’s thematic elements.

“I channeled a lot of the guitar overdubs [and] harmonies in the studio,” House says, “so they were an unexpected, un-

INTERVIEW WITH KYLE HOUSE AND DANIEL BUTLER BY GRANT SKELTON known part of the songs until that point. I really like the texture it adds.”

“Lyrically, Decreation is a classic Acephalix record,” Butler further comments. “It’s very mental and all about spiritual dismemberment. It’s about losing—or at least getting close to losing—your mind.”

Acephalix’s members claim affiliation with a number of other Bay Area death metal bands. Butler and bassist Luca Indrio lurk among the ranks of San Fran-

cisco’s Vastum, while House likewise lays down rancorous riffery in Serpents Of Dawn. Drummer Dave Benson appears on the long-awaited self-titled debut LP from Depressor, released in June via Fuck Yoga Records. Overlap between band members is a product of a DIY scene ethic, something that is vital to independent and underground death metal artists. Even in 2017, scenes are indispensable for bands.

“Without a scene, it would just be sound waves from a speaker,” House says.

WASHER For Mike Quigley and Kieran McShane, there’s a lot of thought and careful deliberation that goes with being in a band.

Sometimes, as is the case with Washer’s sophomore effort, All Aboard—out Sept.

15 on Exploding In Sound Records—it borders on caution.

“After the first record, I don’t think we explicitly said, ‘Let’s be weirder,’” says Quigley, the band’s vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, who formed the band with drummer McShane in 2013, “but we wanted to make sure there was growth on the second record and that we weren’t just rehashing the same old stuff. That’s super easy to do, even if you’re not conscious about it. I definitely wanted to avoid that, and I think that forced us to be a little bit more inventive.”

All Aboard isn’t a huge retreat from Washer’s pop-leaning post-punk, but it is an evolution from 2016 debut, Here Comes Washer. More complex arrangements find their way into the band’s minimalist punk framework on the 15-track affair, staving off the redundancy Quigley and McShane deliberately sought to sidestep. There’s also an angry energy to the duo’s new songs

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that shows its face in just about every song title. When a record is bookended by songs called “Forget Everything” and “Enough Already,” it’s not hard to read the angst-ridden writing on the wall.

In an era of mounting social and political crises, it’s easy to empathize with the duo’s frustrations, but Quigley says there are more personal concerns exacerbating All Aboard’s acerbic edge.

As proud products of the underground rock resurgence booming in Brooklyn, things like the closure of Shea Stadium—the DIY hub where Washer and many of their peers cut their teeth— weighed on their minds during recording. There have also been band breakups, none more impactful than that of Flagland, who Quigley and McShane looked to as scene mentors. “I think that has something to do with changes in our little corner of the scene, for sure,” Quigley says. “I definitely can now listen to certain stuff and attribute that as an influence on the record.”

It was Flagland’s Nick Dooley—a classmate of Quigley and McShane—who specifically went to bat for Washer when they were first getting off the ground. Dooley had the ear of Explod-

INT E R V IE W W IT H MIKE QUIGLE Y BY RYA N B RAY ing In Sound honcho Dan Goldin, and he used that influence to help bring the band into the label’s growing family of artists.

Since then, Quigley and McShane have kept a close working relationship with Dooley, who helped the duo produce and record both Here Comes Washer and All Aboard. The latter was recorded at Brooklyn’s Silent Barn, as well as Dooley’s barn studio in Vermont. “Kieran and I get along very well when it comes to making music,” Quigley says, “but it’s nice, when we don’t necessarily know what’s what, to have that other opinion. We really trust Dooley, because we’ve worked with him forever.

He wasn’t just an engineer sitting in the corner waiting for me to tell him to hit record.”

Intermittent “weekend warrior” touring in August and September coincide with the new record’s release, Quigley says, and will be followed by longer stints in the fall and spring. “We’d like to tour more for sure, but we also see the value in taking our own pace with all of this,” he says. “We’ve seen a lot of friends burn out real quick, because it can get to you. So, we’re trying to find a happy medium.”

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THE CREEPSHOW From starting in Montréal’s back-alley bars in 2005 to recently sharing a stage with Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, X, The Vandals, and more at the latest ‘77 MONTRÉAL festival—a celebration of the past 40 years of punk—The Creepshow have proven hard work and dedication pay off. Taking inspiration from early B-roll horror films and adding a personal twist, the group make it clear they want to stand out from the rest in the psychobilly and “punkabilly” genres.

Upright bassist Sean “Sickboy” McNab mentions that while the band is labeled psychobilly and it’s a big part of their sound, they really just view their music as rock ‘n’ roll and, ultimately, just want to have fun.

Their humble beginnings, laid-back attitude, and deep respect for their fans have kept The Creepshow relevant for more than a decade, despite the massive amount of up-and-coming bands in the scene. “They pay to see you, they buy merch, they show appreciation for your work,” vocalist and guitarist Kenda “Twisted” Legaspi says of their fans.

“Let them know how incredible they are.

Kindness goes a long way. If it wasn’t

for them, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

This gratitude has led The Creepshow to write more music and consistently tour worldwide. They released their first new full-length in four years, Death at My Door, via Stomp Records on Sept. 15, and it has taken the band’s sound to a whole new level—especially since they finished recording after spending only one weekend together. “It wasn’t a conscious decision either,” McNab says. “This was the first time we kind of just got in the rehearsal space for one weekend and just banged out the whole record. We’ve never done anything like that before.

It’s usually writing and getting together a couple times a week for a few months, but this time, we locked ourselves [away] for a whole weekend and just wrote. We came in with skeletons of songs and just banged it out. I wouldn’t recommend doing that, but it worked out.”

past decade of playing together. “There’s something with the band right now where everything is just clicking and we’re all on the same page,” he mentions.

“Everyone tries, and everyone has their own ideas, even if they don’t get it. For the most part, everyone just brings it.

We had a really good time writing songs for once; it’s usually pretty stressful, but this time, it was cool.”

McNab says The Creepshow have really clicked in the last year, whether with writing, performing, or sharing ideas. This cohesiveness comes from the band’s growth as musicians over the

Along with evolving musically, The Creepshow manage to face countless daily obstacles and grow stronger from handling these challenges. From robberies and wrecks to personal hardships,

I N T E R V I E W W I T H S E A N M C N A B A N D K E N DA L E G AS P I BY N ATA L E E C O L O M A N they see these difficulties as stepping stones and learning curves for a better future. “You can either allow it to take you over and turn you into a negative person, or you can learn and grow from it and be a better person because of it,” Legaspi shares. “Life hasn’t been easy, to say the least. I feel like I’ve grown a lot because of my past struggles and mistakes. I’m also able to use what I have learned to help others. Which, in itself, is worth all of it.”

TWO KNIGHTS Denton, Texas, is known for its tightknit punk scene. The small Dallas suburb—population: 133,808—supports a diverse music community in which bands commonly share members to explore fresh sounds.

The result is a creative hotbed with an outsized musical output, all built around overlapping circles of friends working together to put their city on the map.

It’s also the place energetic emo duo Two Knights call home. The band were formed in 2009 by vocalist and guitarist Parker Lawson and drummer Miles DeBruin, and their latest EP, Effing, was released on Sept. 1 via Skeletal Lightning.

The pair split their time between several acts, including Mimisiku, Father Figure, Whimper, and Flesh Born—not to make anyone feel lazy.

Their prolific pedigree isn’t likely to stop there either, as Lawson jokes that they’ve spent considerable time planning yet another project: writing the most massive prog rock record possible. “That probably got planned more than any actual record we’ve

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ever done—one we jokingly wanted to write,” Lawson says. “We were brainstorming that for a bit. Hopefully we’ll do it one day, get a bunch of our friends to play on it, and write the wildest prog record ever.”

Playing in multiple bands while helming Two Knights for nearly a decade may seem to require limitless energy. However, it might be more accurate to chalk the band’s longevity up to the deep personal bond between Lawson and DeBruin. Having played together since middle school, collaborating has become a natural process for the duo, which is reflected by Effing’s short writing process. According to Lawson, its six tracks were written in just a couple weeks. “Two Knights has always been really fast,” he says. “We get the songs, and they just kind of bust out. We put them out really quick, we record them really quick, we play them probably too quick when we play them,” he laughs.

One of the things that’s immediately apparent about Two Knights is their flair for the absurd. The record’s title, Effing, stems from an inside

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST PARKER LAWSON BY BEN SAILER joke that involved frequent use of the phrase “f-ing,” and nearly every song title on the album features a pop culture reference wrapped around a clever turn of phrase: titles like “Regina’s Specter” and “Stoned Legends of the Hidden Temple Pilots” speak for themselves.

What’s not obvious, however, is the seriousness of the lyrical subject matter—which ranges from general anxiety to polyamory—expressed on the EP. As someone who struggles to communicate negative feelings in a healthy way, Lawson uses music as

a catharsis to cope with bottled-up emotions. It’s a stark contrast to the band’s otherwise lighthearted demeanor, yet the balance between humor and heaviness makes their indie emo technicality both aurally compelling and emotionally resonant.

“It’s a lot easier to make jokes than actually talk about my problems,” Lawson says, “and I’d have to say Two Knights, as a band, is kind of like a bunch of problems wrapped up in a bunch of jokes.”

VACIVUS Like the best of the recent old-school death metal revival, Temple of the Abyss—the fantastic debut full-length from the U.K.’s Vacivus, out Sept. 22 via Profound Lore—truly sounds old.

The group’s blackened death style has harrowing melodies and mindaltering madness swirling around to create an album that harks back to some ancient evil darkness. Not to be mistaken: Temple of the Abyss may be among the catchiest and heaviest of the retro revival, but its throwback sound feels delightfully modern— “timeless” is probably the best word for it. Vacivus’ first full-length is a doozy, and while it feels void of time and place, it may be the best death metal album of 2017.

So, how did the band come up with their technicolor style? Vocalist Nick Craggs and drummer Ian Finley share, “When we founded Vacivus, we wanted to create dark, sinister music, but we didn’t want to be held back by preconceived ideas of genre. We all have eclectic tastes in music, and we try to let our influences flow freely, so elements of doom, black metal, and even punk creep in from time to time.

We didn’t really set out to achieve

anything specific with our debut album, other than wanting to capture the ferocity of our live performances, and we couldn’t be happier with the end-result.”

There’s a ritualistic nature to the music on Temple of the Abyss that really plays well the lyrics: an ode to darkness and entropy. “Our lyrics deal primarily with the glorification of death. However, we’re not dealing with horror flick-style gore or Satanism,” Craggs and Finley explain. “We view death as a central force within the universe, that which constantly pulls us toward the grave and, also, drags the cosmos towards its inevitable end. To me, all attempts to anthropomorphize this incomprehensible force with names such as ‘Satan’ fall tragically short of expressing the true nature of universal entropy. We seek our own personal understanding of this universal force—to which we shall return soon enough—and so, take inspiration from a number of occult practices and methodologies without fully embracing any one. When you look at the universe from outside of three dimensions, the void inevitably devours everything which has been,

WILD ONES With a name like Wild Ones, firsttime listeners might anticipate a riotous experience, but this Portland, Oregon, quintet have perfected a DIY indie-pop sound rife with precision and charm. With vocalist Danielle Sullivan’s pure-and-pleasant voice at the forefront, Wild Ones incorporate elements of pop, indie rock, and R&B into their very own unique blend— one that dependable indie label Topshelf Records felt inclined to add to their roster with the band’s 2014 debut full-length, Keep It Safe. Following their arguably faultless Heatwave EP from 2015, Topshelf will continue their relationship with Wild Ones as they release the band’s second studio album, Mirror Touch, on Oct. 6.

During the writing and recording process for Mirror Touch, Sullivan and her bandmates saw their fair share of struggles, but they knew that evolving their sound meant challenging themselves to explore beyond their comfort zone. “On this record, I did my best to push myself into unknown territory while writing melodies and experimenting with cadence,” Sullivan explains. “While

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INTERVIEW WITH NICK CRAGGS AND IAN FINLEY BY NICHOLAS SENIOR is, or will ever be. What could be more deserving of worship than that?”

Vacivus is Latin for “empty” or “void.”

Aside from being good metal fodder, what made the band so fascinated with this topic? “All of mankind’s behavior is irrational,” they assert.

“When you actually think about the universe, the human race is utterly and contemptibly insignificant, and yet, the masses are too busy worrying about trivialities to see the bigger picture. Life is only a temporary state.

All shall return to chaos eventually— or already has if you step out of three dimensions—and it is this unswerving

inevitability which I find fascinating.

Many cultures throughout history have viewed death with reverence, whereas our culture runs screaming from their unavoidable end.”

Is there anything Vacivus think we can do while we are here to make things better for ourselves? “Embrace the inevitable,” they say. “We seek only to further our understanding of the void which awaits us. We are all creatures of death, so to understand the nature of the abyss is to understand ourselves.”

PHOTO: JEREMY HERNANDEZ

demoing, I always have this fear of vocally filling up too much space in a song—of wearing out the magic, I guess.”

On the self-produced Mirror Touch, the magic is far from worn. Album opener “Paresthesia” somehow manages to exist as a percussive gem that will pierce the sleeve-worn hearts of Death Cab For Cutie lovers while also getting Beyoncé fans into formation. Further down the track list, the pulsating penultimate number, “No Money,” is an unobtrusive pop beacon that will have Lorde applauding with approval.

Despite possessing the spirit of ‘80s-inspired synths and smooth grooves, Mirror Touch’s lyrics are ofttimes heavy with themes of disillusionment and uncertainty. “This record was very challenging to make,” Sullivan admits. “We wrote, rewrote, scrapped, and added songs for the past two years. I really struggled with finding my voice and keeping it centered.” She goes on to say, “I was feeling pretty cynical about the music industry in general and wondering how

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST DANIELLE SULLIVAN BY BRIAN LEAK one stays true to their artistic taste while being pushed and pulled by popular trends and influencers, [but] I like the idea of someone hearing my ‘sweet’ sounding voice, then hearing the lyrics and realizing it isn’t very sweet after all.”

Now that the challenges have been overcome and molded into the music, Sullivan and the rest of the Wild Ones—keyboardist Thomas Himes, drummer Seve Sheldon, guitarist Nick Vicario, and bassist Max Stein— are looking to support their newest work with warranted pride. “I hope

to reach as many folks as we can with this record,” Sullivan says excitedly.

“I can’t wait to design a live set and share it around the country. The feeling of visiting longtime fans with a brand new set full of fresh work is the absolute greatest.” Touching on expectations, she adds, “It’s impossible to plan where a record will take you. I’m constantly surprised by where our music has ended up. I just hope that folks connect with Mirror Touch and we get to see them out on the road.”

SHOWOFF The mid to late ‘90s was a great time to be an impressionable teenage punk fan. In the wake of so many awesome bands emerging at the start of the decade, another wave of bands were born—influenced by those who came before them—and many labels popped up to get their music out. Before the proliferation of the internet, these bands gained exposure through word of mouth and were born out of communities where people went to shows to find new music and to experience—in person—an authentic, pure version of what they now seek online: connection and community.

Some of those new punk bands found supportive homes on labels where they flourished and had long, super rad careers.

Showoff weren’t one of those bands.

After forming in Chicago in 1997 and self-releasing their debut LP and an EP, the band signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records in 1998. They released their self-titled major label debut in 1999 and had a hit song with the single, “Falling Star,” but didn’t get to release their 2001 follow-up due to red tape and conflict with the label. Frontman Chris Messer— better known as Chris Envy—says

the band played 256 shows between April and December of 2001. He endured anxiety issues and increasing panic attacks, and the stress of it all, combined with the inability to release their music, led the band to break up in 2002. “We were like, ‘Let’s take a break,’” Messer recalls of the point at which the band broke—and not in the good way.

After a brief reemergence in 2005, the beloved pop punk band—with their original lineup mostly intact— officially came back, reuniting in 2014 for a few well-received hometown shows with MxPx. Now, Showoff ’s new 13-song album, Midwest Side Story, drops Sept. 22—Messer’s 41st birthday—on his own Dodgeball Records, paired with a digital copy of their unreleased 2001 album, Wish You Were Her. Messer is rightfully stoked. “Oh, it’s awesome,” he says of having the band back together.

“We had such a great response from people, so we just decided, ‘Hey, why not do it again?’”

For Messer, the impetus behind starting Dodgeball with his wife Dani Messer and The Smoking Popes’ Mike Felumlee and his reason for writing new songs were the same: the love

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CHRIS "ENVY" MESSER BY NICK HARRAH of the music and that seemingly lost sense of connection and community.

“It just kind of all clicked together,” he admits. Messer missed the days of bands uniting people in the real world, face to face. “I got the feeling, like, the community—the punk rock community, as it were, like it used to be in the ‘90s, etcetera—it just didn’t seem like it was quite the same anymore,” the singer and songwriter says. “So, for me, I wanted to start a label that really emphasized community and signing bands that cared about their community.”

Now, Messer sings new songs about overcoming doubt, rejection, and loneliness to new fans, but also to

those who matter most: old friends and fans. “I’ve met a lot of people along the way, and it’s been really cool to make this connection with those people,” he says. “Now, with doing the band again, doing this label, I’m starting to reconnect with a lot of these same people.”

For Messer, Showoff are still about the same thing they were about 20 years ago: writing songs that resonate with people. “It’s a lot of fun and really cool to be playing shows again and seeing people sing songs from two decades ago and still remember ‘em,” he says. “It’s been awesome.”

T he Sp a rk

The new album. 9/22/2017.

Silver vinyl LP / CD / Digital.

W

hen one thinks of Norwegian sons Satyricon’s sound, they think of something symphonic that sidesteps being grandiose or cheesy. Rather, it’s orchestrated.

Deep Calleth Upon Deep—the Norwegian group’s first for Napalm Records, due out on Sept. 22—is a whole different animal from most black metal records. Even though the instruments are bare and organic, there’s a sense that this is carefully composed music in a way that a lot of metal albums aren’t. There’s a finesse and focus that make it special. Vocalist and guitarist Sigurd “Satyr” Wongraven explains, “We talked a lot about—on almost a daily basis, especially through the last year and a half of the process—[that] our compositions had to be refined, had to be finessed. I wanted it to sound elegant, more like a cheetah, not like a fucking blind rhino,” he laughs. “We talked about the importance of intelligence in the musical arrangements—not necessarily having to be complex or advanced, but it’s got to have finesse.”

That finesse translates to much of Deep Calleth Upon Deep feeling like a record from a whole new band. The soul of Saty-

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ricon is still here, but there’s a new “otherness” that’s refreshing. “This record took a few turns throughout the making of it,” Satyr expands. “It was something that we were working on for about three years, and in the beginning, the record was probably a little more violent and faster. To me, that’s an element I like in extreme metal music, but when it’s dominating the whole picture, I actually find music like that to be a little more shallow and not so soulful. For us, after a while, we were going on a quest for more spirituality, and that made the material much more varied, in order to get that substantial depth that we look for musically and spiritually.”

Indeed, Deep Calleth Upon Deep sounds much more spiritual than the band’s past works, with a decidedly dark artrock sound. Satyr agrees and states this may be due to his 2015 brain tumor diagnosis, which, fortunately, was benign. “I think that is quite natural when you find yourself in a situation where you’re not exactly sure you’re going to be alive,” he explains. “To me, my health scare, that made me think about it, that there is a real chance someday that I cannot do Satyricon. It does raise a lot of existential questions, and that makes me start

to think that this may be the last thing I can do, and if so, what should it be like?

What is it that’s important for me to make right now? I think those questions I had indirectly influenced the sound of the record.”

arts that I can relate to on a more spiritual level. If you look in my house, it doesn’t look very strictly curated because I lots of different styles: contemporary, fantasy, pop surrealism, whatever I connect to.”

“I think if I had some terminal diagnosis, it would be different,” Satyr continues. “This benign tumor, the presence of it is causing problems, but it’s not a life-threatening condition, and therefore, it’s this thing that is affecting me existentially right now more than physically.”

“Spirituality” can be a vague term. What does it mean to Satyr? “It means many things, but one of the key associations for me is that I associate spirituality with when time ceases to exist, if you know what I mean,” he shares. “I find it more on a physical level when I can focus on my own breaths and am able to shut out the outside world. It makes me connect with a kind of part inside me that doesn’t feel earthly.”

Was it a choice to embrace the spiritual aspects or does Satyr feel something greater was calling for it to happen? “I think that happened in a really organic way. There wasn’t a conscious approach,” he answers. “I like to think that no matter what it is that we do in life, whatever we do is influenced by a lot of things that we don’t necessarily consider as sources of inspiration. Sometimes, I’m really drawn to a piece of visual art, and I don’t know why or what it is that makes me connected to it. Well, probably there’s something in there that is talking to my subconscious. That’s the way I view visual art, because I only like visual

So, with all this reflection, where does Satyr want to take Satyricon next? “I really feel like—on a personal level, not at a commercial level—I need Satyricon to excel in a new place where we haven’t been before as a band,” he says, “and take us to an artistic level and let us experience things like we haven’t experienced in the past. I want that to be either a great ending to Satyricon or a great source of inspiration for new decades to come.”

new albums from topshelf records: Wild Ones Mirror Touch

CD / LP / CS / digital - October 6

Self-produced and recorded, Portland, OR’s Wild Ones walk the line of DIY oddity and polished pop sheen via a mash of R&B synths, muted guitar, and somber vocal melodies.

For Fans of: Chair Lift, Purity Ring, Jay Som, Tennis, Empress Of, Alvvays.

“Wonderfully detailed, with that charm they manage to conjure so effortlessly and resplendently... a well-timed reminder of how the quiet power of pop music can hold its own against just about anything.” -GoldFlakePaint “A catchy indie gem with a deeper meaning” -NYLON

Prawn Run

CD / LP / CS / digital - September 22

Drawing as much influence from post-rock and punk as the emo world they’re often written in to, Prawn’s newest effort sees them carve out a dark but wildly immediate collection of songs that sits as their most formidable work to-date.

For Fans of: The Appleseed Cast, Explosions In the Sky, mewithoutYou, Jimmy Eat World, PUP, Into It. Over It. “Prawn is a sterling example of emo's possibility, even as it continues to outgrow the genre's parameters.” -NPR

Queen Moo Mean Well

CD / LP / CS / digital - out now

Featuring the original rhythm section of Sorority Noise, Queen Moo is an American Rock & Roll band. The group presents vivid harmony refined through a rigorous and personal creative process. Mean Well is a portrait of the group and the individuals.

For Fans of: Pile, Wolf Parade, Franz Ferdinand, The Pixies.

“More than the party atmosphere, the personal lyrics, the bare honesty, and the hectic shows—is a high standard of musicianship.” -Noisey

also available: Gingerlys

People Like You

s/t

Verse

CD / LP / CS / digital

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November 17

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additional new titles available from: Us and Us Only, Ratboys, tricot & No Vacation.

tour dates, merch & info: topshelfrecords.com

S

wedish melodic death metal powerhouse, Arch Enemy, aren’t exactly nervous about change. Whether they’re facing the loss of core members like former vocalist Angela Gossow and guitarist Christopher Amott or experimenting with various subgenres of metal, they have always pressed onward. With the addition of former The Agonist vocalist Alissa White-Gluz on their previous release, 2014’s War Eternal, and fretboard wizard Jeff Loomis—formerly of Nevermore and currently of Conquering Dystopia—during said album’s tour cycle, Arch Enemy have never had a more capable and confident group of musicians.

“I think confidence is a good word to use,” White-Gluz says. “All of us feel really strongly about the album, and we didn’t know that would be the case going in, actually, because we never know how it’s going to end up. At this point, this lineup of Arch Enemy has played over 300 shows together in a very short span of time. So, we got to know each other very well as musicians and as people. Of course, we influence

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one another just from being around each other so much, so I think that’s where all of that comes from.”

Arch Enemy released their 11th studio album, Will To Power, on Sept. 8 through Century Media Records.

Fans of the band’s classic material will be delighted by the barrage of riff-work, but those hoping they will expand their sound to uncharted territories will also be pleased.

Anyone looking for a solid slab of melodic death metal will surely be satisfied by tracks like “Murder Scene” and “The Race,” while fans of metal with a more progressive and cinematic slant will undoubtedly love “Dreams of Retribution” and the unexpected ballad, “Reason To Believe.”

“I’ve always done lots of different vocal techniques, so we all thought, ‘Well, why not use that?!’ Of course, we didn’t want to force it into a song, but for ‘Reason To Believe,’ it sounded really good and really right for that song,” White-Gluz says. “If it makes us a more complete metal band to have a ballad in our repertoire of songs, why not go ahead and

do that? I never thought I should force [clean singing] into this band just because I can do it. Sure, I can do it, but it’s not necessary to make a good song. It’s only useful if it fits in the song.”

It’s no secret that Arch Enemy are firing on all cylinders in 2017, and their lead single and music video for “The World Is Yours” certainly proves it. Starting off with a blistering and thrash-laden assault, the song is an unrelenting metal banger. It was also the first taste fans were given of Loomis’ contributions on Will To Power: a dizzying and daunting batch of swirling solos that will leave even the most seasoned shredders scratching their heads. “Obviously, [Loomis] is a great asset to have because we know that he can play anything,” White-Gluz says. “There’s no fear at any point in a song where we’re like, ‘Is he going to be able to nail this part?’ Of course he is! He’s Jeff, you know?”

While Arch Enemy’s most recent lineup changes have been major, resulting in some alterations to the

band’s sound, the roots of Amott’s musical vision are as vibrant and present as ever. “The way that Arch Enemy has always been structured is primarily with Michael Amott as the primary songwriter and sort of the leader of the band,” White-Gluz says. “He’s the musical director of the band, and that hasn’t changed.

I think that, even though Jeff and I are relatively new additions to the band, but we also have our own styles. We’re just adding more tools to the toolkit as we go. It feels like an evolution, but not a complete change and abandoning the past in any way.”

Expect to see a lot of Arch Enemy in the coming months. The band’s co-headlining tour with Trivium—featuring support from While She Sleeps and Fit For An Autopsy—will begin in late October and run through early December, after which they will return to Europe to play select dates throughout January and February.

H

elsinki’s Ensiferum have a renewed energy filled with triumph, and it has been translated into their newest epic, Two Paths. The seventh fulllength from the group—out Sept. 15 via Metal Blade Records—continues their run at becoming a staple of the folk metal genre.

Ensiferum’s trademark blistering riffs and nigh-fabled leads help stage the perfect atmosphere for their heroic tales to live in. One listen to the marching war drum patterns of “Way of the Warrior,” and one can easily grasp the style of Ensiferum, the main motif being warped into a character-driven melody, full of pride and an inspiring theme of disposing of all foes.

“When the song started to get ready with most of the parts, it was really easy to write the lyrics because the song was obviously becoming strong, heroic, and catchy,” bassist and vocalist Sami Hinkka comments.

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For much of Two Paths, Ensiferum played their parts live, directly to analog, and sometimes without a click track, allowing for sections to have a more organic and charismatic taste, like the end of “Way of the Warrior.” Hinkka states, “Maybe the biggest difference was that we recorded drums, bass, rhythm guitars, and harsh vocals with analog method on tape without editing and overall trying to achieve as live a feeling and sound as possible.”

Another step in the right direction for the band’s sound was the addition of former Turisas accordionist Netta Skog, who made an immediate impact. “She comes from a bit different musical background, so we would have been stupid not to exploit her creativity and knowledge,” Hinkka adds, explaining she was a key component to creating certain arrangements.

On “Feast with Valkyries,” her accordion playing lends a big hand to the championing melody, accenting

the multiple vocal styles and taking leads to new heights, transporting the listener to a hall filled with warriors devouring giant plates of game and mugs full of mead.

While their melodies usually accompany images of victory and triumph, the song “King of Storms” is grimmer, telling the story of a corrupt king willing to bring pain and viciousness to the land. The song’s breakneck speed is attributed to drummer Janne Parviainen, as Hinkka originally wrote the song to be mid-tempo and heavy. “That’s the beauty of writing songs together,” he says, “someone might come up with a suggestion or arrangement idea that you didn’t even think about. ‘King of Storms’ is interesting song, because even though it’s a fast piece, it’s still quite long song, but since the arrangement turned out to be excellent, it doesn’t feel like that long.” The guitar and vocal duels and callbacks by Petri Lindroos and Markus Toivonen help

the song achieve its status as the most dynamic track on the record.

Traversing Two Paths is like opening a collection of folk tales, and each song is an incredible achievement in capturing the feel, look, and sound of these epics. “God Is Dead” is a rock-heavy track bitten by a drunken choir. It was originally penned as an acoustic track, but Hinkka reflects, “I don’t think Ensiferum has ever rocked this hard before. I had the idea for the lyrics before the song, and since the song became quite straight-forward, I wanted the chorus to be simple.”

The song bellows around its catchy refrain perfectly, with the entire band thrashing in unison, showcasing yet another reason why Two Paths is Ensiferum’s greatest victory anthem yet.

PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

S

an Diego-based heavy psych power-trio Radio Moscow are back with a new album entitled New Beginnings— following up 2014’s Magical Dirt—a new label in Century Media Records, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Sometimes titles are just an afterthought, but in the case of New Beginnings—out Sept. 29—it connotes a new chapter for the band and their major-domo, vocalist and guitarist Parker Griggs. “It signifies leaving the past behind and moving forward to a hopefully brighter, new beginning,” he says. “The lyrics make a lot of sense with the title. Since the last release, a lot has happened in my life and with the band. With this album, I’m trying to shed that skin and move on. These songs were a good way to get it off my chest and be able to move on to the next chapter in life. Writing these songs and making this album was, for me, the only way to get some closure on a lot of different things that I wasn’t able to get closure on in any other way. This is probably

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the most personal and somewhat frustrated [and] contemplative album in the Radio Moscow catalog yet, because of some major events in the past years.”

While the lyrics might have taken a more contemplative turn, the music is still the same fiery, heavy, blues-influenced psych rock that has garnered the band—Griggs, bassist Anthony Meier, and drummer Paul Marrone—a sizable fan base across the world. This was all intentional. “I also wanted to grow further on the sound we’ve developed,” Griggs says. “It turned out being somewhat of a concept album, and that was kinda cool, because it wasn’t intentional. I wanted to achieve an intense sound that brings to mind our loud live shows, and I think this one captures that pretty well too.”

It’s the next logical step for Radio Moscow. “It’s been a natural evolution, and we’ve always played how we wanted and not been told what to do from outside sources,” he adds. “I think we just keep getting more com-

fortable, and it’s gotten tighter and a little heavier overall, I’d say.”

Griggs’ guitar playing on New Beginnings is on point: from memorable riffs to mighty solos that don’t skimp on fiery, fuzz-driven passion, he covers all the guitar hero bases. He has also been around long enough to influence a new generation of players— but what influences his style?

Fans might be surprised. “I’m a fan of so much stuff, it’s hard to pinpoint just a few, but—some might be surprised that I’m very into a lot of Turkish rock [and] psych,” Griggs reveals. “Overall, a lot of the underground stuff is a bigger influence than the big names some people might expect. Some of my favorite guitar parts might be from a band that only recorded a song or two. One guy you don’t hear much about but [who] is one of my favorites is Keith Cross from T2. [I’m] also a really big fan of Vic Vergeat from Toad and Phil Keaggy from Glass Harp—but the list could go on and on.”

There also must be a reason why the style of rock music Radio Moscow play is still a viable form of expression. Griggs has a theory about psych’s longevity. “Well, to me, it’s the most exciting form of rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s timeless,” he shares. “We are influenced by an era where music was so plentiful and creative. I think psychedelia has been waiting for its comeback for far too long; it was such an important and interesting style to only have been around for a few years in the ‘60s. It seems like a perfect time to relight the torch and keep it going. Plus, the freedom in this style to jam and improv when you want is very refreshing and keeps everyone on their toes. Each night’s a new surprise for some tunes, and nowadays, with so much overproduced music, that is a rare thing.”

This all points to definite new beginnings for Radio Moscow.

COUNTERPARTS YOU’RE NOT YOU ANYMORE

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PHOTO: ESTER SEGARRA

L

ee Dorrian is a master of brutality, harnessing darkness and harvesting rebellion throughout his life in music.

Dorrian sang for Napalm Death on their menacing first two albums— well, half of 1987’s Scum and all of 1988’s From Enslavement to Obliteration. He then formed the titans of doom metal, Cathedral, and he runs Rise Above Records, which boasts an impressive roster of bands who revel in occult, Satanic, and serial killer celebration. In 2014, he began a new venture: With The Dead.

Dorrian is reporting after a jovial day of dinosaur golf with his daughter and his mum, who traveled 100 miles south to London from Dorrian’s hometown of Coventry. After teeing vibrant colored balls through brontosaurus’ legs, the trio went to the park. Dorrian refers to this as “a pretty chill day,” and after a slight pause, quietly adds, “not very doom, I know.”

The disclaimer is amusing after enduring the 77 minutes of cathartic sonic punishment that is With The Dead’s sophomore LP, Love From

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With The Dead. The album slithers into speakers on Sept. 22 via Rise Above.

For Love From With The Dead, Dorrian and guitarist Tim Bagshaw lost a member of their original trio— drummer Mark Greening—but expanded with two new musicians: drummer Alex Thomas and bassist Leo Smee. The opener, “Isolation,” is a draining, twisting eight-minute track with thick, sludgy chords.

The second track, “Egyptian Tomb,” picks up the tempo while managing to balance the agonizing atmosphere of regret and sorrow.

“Watching the Ward Go By” is an odd tonal piece; a dissonant strum vibrates through the echoes of a sanitarium, and Dorrian rants of his character’s predicament for two-thirds of the 11-minute trek.

“Anemia” reverberates a haunting, cavernous miasma as crashing cymbals and ringing basslines cloud the sound. Close, “CV1”—a nod to Coventry—battles against its 17-minute runtime, ending in a noise barrage assisted by hometown electro musician, Russell Haswell. The power lies not within galloping speeds, but the plod-

ding desperation. The suffocating loss entrenched in each calculated bombing of saturated riffs eviscerates any hope.

After forming, the new quartet began rehearsing. “In one evening, literally, we had the set nailed. We didn’t even need the [other three days],” Dorrian recalls. “So, instead of canceling the rehearsals, we worked on new material. We came up with the last four songs on album. We recorded them the following Monday in February 2016.” Bagshaw went home to New Jersey to write a few more songs in November and December, then returned to London in January. The connection remained. “We rehearsed them in one night and recorded the next day,” Dorrian says. “That’s it.

There’s the album.” The vocalist feels free in this approach. “This band is pretty cool,” he shares. “We think about things a lot, but we don’t physically spend too much time working or writing the songs.”

Jaime Gómez Arellano’s production on Love From With The Dead is dedicated to a muddy quagmire of distortion and destitution, but

the approach never obfuscates the musicianship. Dorrian’s vocals follow no traditional path, riding his emotions and impulses more than any predictable trajectory. Dorrian accepts this assessment of his vocal approach, explaining, “It’s just me, where I am now. I spent too much time worrying about things in the past. The best stuff I do is when I don’t think too much about it. I should always just follow my own instincts.”

Dorrian reignites upon the mention of the world’s last few years. “Hello!

Life got heavier since last album,” he establishes as he chuckles. “I’m not laughing ‘cause it is funny. I’m laughing because it’s kind of ridiculous how things have been. Everything in this album, I have lived and breathed it. That’s what we wanted to achieve, that level of sincerity. However you mix it, that’s the technical side of it, but you have to convey a feeling—and that feeling is one of intense brutality.”

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S

peed is not the only magic potion tech-death masters Archspire yield. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based quintet also transport some devastatingly groovy and harmonious mystic dust that’ll spin you yonder and beyond.

The band’s latest multifarious beast, Relentless Mutation—out Sept. 22 via Season Of Mist—is a conjunction of taste and progression.

“One of the main differences on the new record is there’s more of a melodic element,” vocalist Oli Peters notes. “I think we’ve always really tried to push the bar stylistically and technically, and Relentless Mutation is another step in that direction.”

Some sections on the new album will undoubtedly create whiplash and other bodily harm— “The manic speed is certainly intended,” Peters laughs—but this is an epically warm and lush work of art. There’s an underlying circuitry that pulses like shifting data networks in the

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Sombrero Galaxy: at once gentle, technical, and still very much organic. “I don’t even own a cellphone,” Peters admits. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

You know, we’re a bunch of sci-fi punk vets, and I think the band’s connection is something that goes a long way. We grew up together, lived down the road from one another, and really worked hard to get to this point.”

If 2014’s The Lucid Collective showcased a sound mightily beyond anything familiar, Relentless Mutation even further distances itself: a record that is urban, transient, and colorful in a sort of invisible, crystalline way. The landscape of Vancouver is painted in cubist blocks and transported to the dark future eons of cities of surrealistic glass. There’s a reflection on the new album that can’t be ignored.

This is a thing of continuity and variance. “Nobody comes in with a specific finished song,” Peters says. “We put it together as one collective unit—and there’s all sorts of stuff going on. Rap is a

big influence on my vocal style, artists like Tech N9ne and Busta Rhymes, and both [Archspire guitarists], Tobi [Morelli] and Dean [Lamb], are guitar nerds; they really love that ‘80s guitar shred.”

Relentless Mutation flies by in a blur. Like all transcendental death metal, the record has the charm of circular listening. You spin it and then spin it again, and it keeps getting better and more particular. It keeps ending faster, and the listener must keep playing it and playing it, and then, it evens out. The sections become a dream: engaged, but not totally clear. There’s an athletic quality to the rigidity of the record, a clean and natural sensibility.

“It’s sort of sport in the sense that we’re pushing each other continuously, physically and creatively,” Peters relays. “It’s certainly hard to write dynamic stuff when you’re not feeling healthy. We’re not a party band. On the road, we try to eat well and stay hydrated.

It’s imperative to the sort of music we play.”

There’s coldness in Archspire, something like the chilly mountaintops that surround their native city, but there’s infinite warmth too. That open and immaculate western sky careens off each and every dizzying riff, every half-man, half-machine vocal onslaught. You become connected, sort of in the way Vera Webster is transformed into an evil nightmare cyborg in “Superman III”—such insanity in silver, wired visions. These are the creeping things that Archspire do amazingly well.

They are connected like few others. “A fucked-up dream might be the basis for a song concept,” Peters laughs, “or at least a certain section of it. I’ll bring it to the dudes, and we’ll ring it out from there.”

Like spirals of unbounded layers, Archspire ring the essence of dynamism.

I

f you’re lucky enough to have seen the Berlin-based psych rock band, Kadavar, live, then you know just how powerful and immense these guys can get.

A rawness completely unhinged is the group’s greatest effect, and it reverberates like nothing else in the modern rock or metal scenes.

However, Kadavar’s first three studio albums—2012’s self-titled, 2013’s Abra Kadavar, and 2015’s Berlin—while all equally adept, never truly captured that signature intensity. Studio tinkering, odd placement, and an overall tentativeness plagued the resolution on each record. But all that’s in the past. The band’s newest record, Rough Times—out Sept.

29 via Nuclear Blast—finally sees all things Kadavar coalesce. The capacity, heaviness, and variance converge, the band’s shifting wildness finally captured.

“Everything was recorded live,” vocalist and guitarist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann notes. “We really wanted to capture that rawness and that spark that the live experience has. Perhaps this new record doesn’t sound 100 percent perfect, you know, technical-wise, but it’s what we wanted to pursue, that gritty rock, and I’m really excited about it.”

Rough Times is meaty and grimy in all the right sections. Swift and silky around the edges and easily the most “metal” record the band have constructed. All three members—Lindemann, drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt, and drummer Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup—had equal and substantial input, piecing together something that both stomps and swings. “Three individuals make up this record, and you can really hear it,” Lindemann relays. “In the past, we basically hated each other so much [laughs], trying to create songs all together with a direct process. For Rough Times, we just said, ‘Hey, let’s go home, write some songs individually, and come back and see what happens.’”

In February 2017, Kadavar finished constructing their own recording studio in Berlin, giving

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them a chance to really get down and build their own environment from the ground up. The studio took a few months to complete and left the band with little time to record Rough Times. The pace, though, was instrumental to its totality. “We basically had three weeks,” Lindemann explains. “It took us four months to build the new studio, and we were looking at the remaining two with a whole album ahead of us. We’re usually real lazy when it comes to recording,” he laughs, “but I think with the pressure we had on this one, we really realized it, and there was this rush to produce something real. We only did, like, three tracks of each song, and just chose the best one.”

While drifting through Rough Times, you can feel that looseness, that daring and envelope-pushing sort of surge. It’s an album that’s as sculptural on the backend as it is punishing in the front. The bass is right at the forefront, and it feels truly vibrant. “With Simon, we wanted to really showcase his bass playing and to make it a highlight,” Lindemann explains. “His sound is so dirty and raw. The last album was really mixed as a guitar album, and you know, there’s two other guys in the band, so I decided to bring the guitar back in the mix. I love the late ‘60s sound, where the rhythm is larger than the melody.”

Within all the grit and doom, Lindemann still manages to shred the ever-loving shit out of the guitar.

Seeing the guitarist live is a sight and sound to behold. There are few out there who can match his daring and reckless wizardry. His tone is true, bold, and individualistic: a lightning bolt of honesty. “I don’t like Clapton or Eddie Van Halen,” Lindemann laughs. “I don’t like people who play without soul. Guys like Ritchie Blackmore, Hendrix, and Tony Iommi—those guys have been my inspiration since the beginning. I’m more of a punk rock guy than a technical freak.”

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here are things in life you can fake: you might bullshit your way through a job or manufacture a smile to avoid drama.

problems, shoulder problems, and a 40-year-old voice. But putting out a record and touring—we really love doing it now, because it’s [on] our own terms.”

Playing in Hot Water Music is Not long after 2004’s The New not one of those things.

What Next—their third of three increasingly polished albums A tenet of underground music for Epitaph Records—the is the informal intimacy that band took an informal break exists between band and and only played select shows following, and even in a scene until 2012, when they released that mostly wears its collective Exister. Having quietly signed heart on its sleeve, Hot Water a two-album deal with Rise Music have always been Records, they knew they still known for a certain emotive had another bullet in the symbiosis. If Light It Up—their chamber. eighth full-length with the same four members, due out The ‘90s records earned a Sept. 15 via Rise Records—is revered place in punk for anything, it’s authentic. their unique mix of sonic complexity, raw delivery, and “We wanted to do a record. sincerity. Despite all they’ve We don’t ever want to feel like been through in the 20 years we have to do a record,” says since 1997’s Fuel for the Hate Chris Wollard, who has shared Game, Hot Water Music are guitar and vocal duties with still a band best seen in a the larger-than-life Chuck sweaty venue full of backpack Ragan for 20 years. Rounded patches and cheap beer. Even out by bassist Jason Black and with side projects, marriages, drummer George Rebelo, the kids, and alternate careers— band were road warriors who Ragan is a goddamn fishing used to tour a few hundred days guide in NorCal—Light It Up out of the year. According to gives the distinct impression Wollard, it was “work until the that the band’s members are breaking point, break up, get going back to those roots, even back together, work until the breaking point, break up.”

choosing to go down this road without a producer. The record is a little dirty, with a video for “Vultures” that features a collection of old footage capturing the wild, openhearted spirit they are known for.

“We did a record with the machine,” Wollard recalls, “and it was a great machine. We had an awesome tour manager, a booking agent that did a super job, a record label busting their ass for us, and we recorded with Bill Stevenson. And if a label wanted us to go back to The Blasting Room Studios, I would do that anytime, but we were thinking we could do it without a producer. It’s not that we’re trying to recreate Fuel for the Hate Game or that era, but it was really important to all four of us for it to just be us. We had to trust our gut. This could be a very good way to make a bad record,” he laughs.

Wollard says. “Two people are going one way, and two people are going the other way.

The producer can be the tiebreaker. But there weren’t any arguments.”

“This time around, it was back to that sweaty warehouse, everyone staring at the floor, in their own world, thinking about getting the song,” Wollard says of Light It Up, “and slowly, everyone picks his head up and has this crazy look in his eyes.

You can try to force it, but that doesn’t work at the end of the day. I was just blown away by how it all came together.”

Hot Water Music will play Riot Fest Chicago in September, followed by a few shows on both coasts, including FEST 16 in their hometown.

And so, they all got together in Gainesville, Florida—the town where they became a band— and recorded 12 tracks that combine their original passion with learned experience.

“Usually, at some point, there’s going to be an argument,”

To Pitchfork, Hot Water Music were “pirates singing.”

To punks, they were “busted lips and microphone brawls.”

“Well, it was totally different when I was 20,” Wollard says.

“I had never been to the West Coast or Europe. I wanted to conquer it. And once we had, I wanted to go to Slovenia and Sweden and places we hadn’t been.”

Very punk; not very sustainable. “We were always a vibe-type band with a tangible energy,” Wollard explains, “but sometimes, you just show up to play and say, ‘This is just not my scene. I hope they don’t turn on me.’ And that feels counterfeit as fuck. And like everyone else, I have knee problems, back

NEW NOISE 41

42 NEW NOISE

I

n January of 2016, tragedy struck Iron Chic—and the Long Island punk community at large—when their founding guitarist Rob McAllister passed away from unspecified causes. While McAllister had transitioned out of the band a few months prior, his friendship with the other members remained strong. The loss truly rattled the tight-knit group and left them at a standstill for a stretch of time.

“It was hard; it took the wind out of our sails for a little while,” vocalist Jason Lubrano shares. “We were actually just getting together to really start focusing on writing this record when we had found out. He was one of our closest friends, and we all spent a lot of time together.”

In the days and weeks following McAllister’s passing, Lubrano and his bandmates—guitarists Phil Douglas and Jesse Litwa, bassist Mike Bruno, and drummer Gordon Lafler—rallied together to create a memorial fund to provide long-term support for their friend’s loved ones. For a while, putting all of their focus on helping McAllister’s family occupied their time and energy. Then, when there wasn’t much more they could do, they sat down and wrote a record.

The Constant One for Bridge Nine Records—have an uplifting quality hidden beneath the gritty pop punk veneer, You Can’t Stay Here features a milder, toned-down version of their sound—not so much in the number of “whoa-oh”s and catchy riffs, but in the way that Lubrano’s words never truly surface from the darkness. “I think it speaks to the place where we were at the time— and, in some ways, still are,” he admits. “It’s about loss, dealing with anxiety, depression, and loneliness in the grand scheme of the universe.”

out, we can take comfort in the fact that we will never have to face the world alone, because Iron Chic and an entire community of people will be there to help us wade through the mess. “[The album] is super personal, but broad at the same time,” Lubrano says. “I want to let people take what they can from it too. It is what it is to them, and that’s just as valid as what it is to me or us.”

Around the album’s release in mid-October, Iron Chic will tour the Northeast with Propagandhi, then play their way down the coast to FEST 16.

Despite the swirling mass of After You Can’t Stay Here offifeelings Iron Chic throw at lis- cially drops, Lubrano and his teners on the new record, they bandmates will travel around still manage to make their fans the U.S., hitting all of the places feel less alone. With gang vocals they haven’t found their way to and explosive hooks abound- in quite some time. ing, You Can’t Stay Here is both a cry for help and a rallying cry No matter where fans catch to stand together and be strong Iron Chic in the coming for the ones you love. months, they’re sure to feel a little less broken and a bit more On the album’s second track, whole by the time the night “My Best Friend (Is a Nihilist),” ends.

Lubrano sings, “We’re not quite sure what being human means.” That’s not a promise; it’s the While we all try to figure that truth.

This marked a new chapter for Iron Chic. Not only did they write an album for the first time in nearly four years—the first without McAllister onboard—they also had a new home for their music. The Los Angeles-based label, SideOneDummy Records, signed the quintet in early 2016 and will release their most recent and long-awaited LP, You Can’t Stay Here, on Oct. 13.

While Iron Chic’s previous records—especially 2013’s

PHOTOS: SCOTT MURRY

NEW NOISE 43

W

ith their roots firmly set in Boston, Rebuilder have been sharing their brand of pop punk with the world since 2013. The five-piece band mix dual guitars, hand claps, and an electric piano, but what really sets them apart from the broad genre of melodic punk is earnest vocals coupled with honest lyrics set over a raucous rhythm section and piercing guitar leads.

Despite the geographical distance, Rebuilder are on the radar in the Pacific Northwest after covering a song by Dead Bars, a local Seattle band, in their live sets. Those who dive into their 2015 full-length, Rock & Roll in America, and the members’ histories may be pleasantly surprised to find they have another Seattle connection: frontman Sal “Ellington” Medrano is the brother of Ramona vocalist and guitarist Diego Medrano, and the two bands toured the West Coast together in 2016. Clearly, the ability to write a catchy-as-hell tune rife with emotion and driving beats runs in the family. On their choice to cover Dead Bars, Medrano says, “I love that band a lot. I think we just started playing ‘No Tattoos’ at practice and started throwing it into the set.”

Now, Rebuilder have released a new EP, Sounds From the Massachusetts Turnpike, on Sept. 1 via Panic State Records. When asked about the two-year gap between releases, Medrano reflects, “It’s funny, because it doesn’t seem

that long of a time between records. Since Rock & Roll in America, we have been touring as much as possible.” He adds that they’ve been lucky in their local scene, having had many opportunities to open for national touring bands, but another key to their success is actively playing shows outside of Boston.

“We try to do shows around the Northeast when we can,” Medrano shares. “Montreal isn’t too far either. Lost Love and Pouzza Fest have always been supportive of us playing there.”

The new EP is comprised of six powerful tracks, generally concerning keeping your head up and reaching for the positive things in life. Medrano confides that he often writes songs as a reminder to stay optimistic. “I live a pretty public life, but I can also be very quiet and secretive about my anxiety and depression,” he reveals. “It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time.” Rebuilder’s lyrics are as cathartic for the listener as they are for the author. Medrano confides, “At the time when I was writing these songs, I was in a pretty shitty place. I didn’t really feel like I could call someone and open up. I thought it was best to just stay quiet.” He adds that “Anchoring” and “The World Is an Asshole” are largely about these topics.

For the remainder of 2017, Rebuilder have an East Coast tour planned, followed by their third time playing FEST in Gainesville. “[At FEST 14 in 2015] we played on Halloween at midnight and did a blink-182 Dude Ranch cover set right after our set,” Medrano recalls. “Beach Slang was across the street at the same time. I was pretty sure no one would be there. It was sold out and people went nuts for us.” For FEST 16, they’ll reprise their role as blink-182 by covering Take Off Your Pants and Jacket as well as playing their own material, neither of which should be missed.

Thus far, Rebuilder have no plans to get out to the West Coast, though Medrano seems eager to do so. “Biggest difference is the West Coast has more places with pinball machines than the East does,” he says.

“It’s a struggle.”

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PHOTO: ERICA LAUREN

L

os-Angeles punk label SideOneDummy has gained another impressive and talented band with the signing of Worriers, the Brooklynturned-Philly quartet fronted by accomplished musician and artist, Lauren Denitzio. Due out on Sept.

29, the band’s sophomore album, Survival Pop, is a poignant account of self-preservation, even in the hardest of times.

Classic guitar riffs, prominent drum beats, and Denitzio’s candid lyrics work together on Survival Pop to celebrate life’s triumphs.

The lead singer and guitarist—who is no stranger to life’s struggles— wrote the cathartic and uplifting album while looking back on their endless hurdles, from enduring years of health issues and growing up queer to losing friends to suicide and substance abuse. Ultimately, they wrote the album that their past-self needed to hear—an

album that, in its simplest form, says, “You will be OK.” “I felt like I was at a point in my life where I was looking back on having to get through a lot of things.

I wanted to write songs that were really for myself, that were what I want to hear when I need music,” Denitzio says. “‘What is it that will help me get through?’ There is some stuff that I watched myself go through and that I watched my family go through—I wanted something helpful for my own sake. I wrote the things that I would want and, hopefully, that will help people too.”

In the few years that Worriers have been on the scene, they have helped people many ways beyond just producing important and inspiring songs. The band’s rotating cast of queer musicians has enabled them to take a more active role in creating spaces that are ac-

cepting of everyone, regardless of their gender, sexual identity, race, and other identities. Denitzio— who has been a member of the DIY and punk community for the better part of a decade—has witnessed first-hand how the music community has become more inclusive.

“When I started playing music, I didn’t even know any bands that weren’t all men. When I started playing music, there were so few bands of my peers. It just started to feel a little more hostile,” Denitzio shares. “There are plenty of bands now with gender-diverse lineups that are touring and recording and putting out records. We still have a long way to go, but I’m really thankful to be doing what we are doing. I’m so thankful for where we are right now.”

While Denitzio is appreciative of the shift taking place in the punk scene, they admit there is still a

long way to go before shows are safer for everyone. That being said, Worriers are at the forefront of making sure punk has more role models who are not strictly straight cisgender men. Denitzio offers a running list of ways that bands can do their part in creating an accepting community and says it starts with supporting musicians who do not fall into just one category.

“It’s about creating a space where your fans will want to go. We are talking about inclusivity and safer spaces—if you’re not bringing a diverse touring lineup, you’re not bringing diversity to those spaces,” Denitzio says. “You can say that you’re pro-feminist and anti-racist, but if you’re not actively trying to create safer spaces, then I don’t want to hear it. We can all take a more active role and be better.”

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rooklyn indie trio Rainer Maria are back with their first album since their breakup in 2006.

They returned to the label they call home, Polyvinyl Records, to drop S/T on Aug. 18. Regarded as a hidden gem in contemporary rock ‘n’ roll, their brand of music touches so many notes—from post-hardcore to emo to grunge—and spans from the ‘90s to the 2000s. This is what has Gainesville’s FEST fans eager to see them in October.

Of their impending FEST appearance, vocalist and guitarist Kaia Fischer says, “It’s a pretty amazing roster of bands slated to play; of course, we’re very stoked. Perform-

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ing is pretty much always fun for us, so we’re really looking forward to the performance aspect. There are also a number of other bands who will be there that we’ve never shared a stage with, and it’s fun to think about getting to meet people.”

Regarding the pressure of their “comeback album” and playing these songs live at FEST, lead vocalist and bassist Caithlin De Marrais admits that the reality is only now starting to seep in. However, she’s eager to unleash the tracks on the audience. “At first, there was no pressure.

None at all,” she says. “It was a complete pleasure, a blissful escape and opportunity to process everything through the filter of songwriting. In contrast, I’ve found the last

few months more challenging. attests that, ironically, their I’m looking forward to sharing break influenced their posand performing the record.” itive new musical outlook.

“We had opportunities to exS/T is also a landmark for perience life outside of the drummer William Kuehn, as context of being members of it is the first Rainer Maria re- Rainer Maria,” he says. “For cord he has produced. “It was S/T, we were able to bring an honor to be able to wear new perspectives and enerthe production hat this time gy to the songwriting that we around,” he says. “My band- wouldn’t have accrued if the mates were very open to my band hadn’t taken a break.” ideas about different methods of songwriting and explor- De Marrais calls S/T a “deeply ing new sounds that helped personal” record, and listento realize the songs on S/T. ers can hear why. It reflects Kaia and Caithlin are incred- the band’s trials and tribulaibly talented and thoughtful tions over the last few years, musicians and individuals. especially Fischer’s coming Anything I asked of the in- out as transgender. Through struments, they were able to these songs, they share these achieve. It was a really posi- challenges, their resilience, tive experience.” and how love shapes them all, allowing them to unite as Fischer interjects, “We had family once more. And when an oddly easy time losing our- it comes to Rainer Maria, selves in the music. Through- the end result will always be out the writing and recording, something powerful and proWilliam kept us very near to found. the energy of discovery and of live performance, which I’m grateful for.”

Rainer Maria’s bonds seem stronger than ever, and Kuehn

NO TRIGGER With their specific mix of melodic hardcore and snotty pop punk, No Trigger have been pushing out jam after jam since forming in Massachusetts in 2000.

On July 28, the five-piece released their fifth EP, Adult Braces, via Bird Attack Records.

This latest effort—along with their two full-lengths and smattering of EPs—falls in line with their unofficial “every four years or so” release schedule. Lead vocalist Tom Rheault confirms that this is the chosen modus operandi for No Trigger. “I think the reason is because the band is not our life, we just do it when we feel like it,” Rheault muses. “We are in a very unique spot where we can kind of pick it up where we left off and people still pay attention, so that’s what we do.

We all have very diverse interests and things going on in our lives, and this is just one of them.”

This time around, the band gave themselves a time limit for hitting the studio.

Rheault reveals that they already had a European tour booked, so they “basically said, ‘Let’s see how many songs we can

write in about a month and a half,’ and we came up with the four for the EP.” Jokingly, he admits, “Somehow, they came out better than we could’ve ever hoped.”

Recorded with Jay Maas in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and mixed and mastered by the pros at Bill Stevenson’s The Blasting Room Studios in Fort Collins, Colorado, the end result is an EP that’s sharp as hell, with a slick yet gritty production. Rheault shares that No Trigger “did record [the] first full-length, [2006’s Canyoneer], at the Blasting Room back in 2005, and we were super happy with that record, so we wanted them to have a stab at making it sound the best it could be again.”

Lyrically, the four tracks on Adult Braces are pretty grown up: the subject matter is not quite middle-aged, but not quite topics from folks in their 20s either.

Rheault breaks the songs down as such: “One song is about getting older, one is about dying in your sleep, and one is about fucking too many people a bit too casually where a lot of people get hurt.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST TOM RHEAULT BY KAYLA GREET He adds that there’s “no real thread, but [they’re] easily some of my favorite lyrics that we’ve ever written.”

The song “Dogs On Acid” ponders mortality and the idea of knowing when it’s your time to die, yet No Trigger manage to present it as an uplifting message instead of one of despair. “If I knew I was going to die soon, I would spend the rest of my time in a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps drinking coffee all day and all night,” Rheault says. Having just wrapped up their fifth European tour,

he’s certainly speaking from experience. He reflects, “We played some of the funniest shows ever during this run, and some amazing festival dates as well.

I think all of us wished it was twice as long!”

Come October, No Trigger will appear at FEST 16 in Gainesville for the seventh time! For Rheault specifically, this is his 11th time attending FEST. “We fucking love the FEST,” he exudes. At this point, they’re seasoned pros.

THE MOVIELIFE Comfort and nostalgia are tricky bastards. When our favorite things get the reboot, we have certain hopes and biases that make it difficult to judge the new media with realistic expectations.

That phenomenon certainly played into the very incredibly long-awaited upcoming record from New Yorkbased band, The Movielife. Their 2003 pre-breakup release, Forty Hour Train Back to Penn, was an incredible record, but Cities In Search of a Heart—out Sept. 22 via Rise Records—is at least as good, if not better. The new record has that classic put-the-CD-on-in-yourcar-and-fall-in-love-instantly feel that will inspire fans to rekindle their romance with an old favorite.

Nostalgia aside, Cities In Search of a Heart proves The Movielife are comfortable with growing up instead of trying to relive their glory days.

Vocalist Vinnie Caruana states, “It’s definitely a different approach, which was super important. We had to be happy with it. Being a music fan—as we all are—I know how it goes when a band you love puts out a record that much further down the line, and you really do approach it with caution,” he laughs. “We certainly didn’t want to try to relive or remake a record we already did when we were much younger

dudes, but we’ve learned a lot about songwriting. I’ve learned a lot more about my voice and what I can do with it. We tried to just apply everything that we’ve learned and, at the same time, how to write a Movielife record without sounding exactly how we did when we were kids—while, at the same time, without totally freaking everyone out.”

That viewpoint helped prevent Caruana from getting caught in the nostalgia trap. “The nostalgia thing is always there when we play shows. It’s never gonna go away,” he concedes, “and that’s cool. I’m glad those songs still mean that to all those people, and that those songs were part of people’s formative years. They were part of my formative years—I wasn’t that much older than a lot of the people who were coming to watch us play, so we were growing up together.”

“This time,” he shares, “we put all nostalgia aside and said, ‘We know we know what we’re doing. We’re good at what we do. Let’s fucking do it together and just make a powerhouse record.’”

Caruana expands, “I told [guitarist] Brandon [Reilly] to write a punk song while I was gone [on tour], and he was like, ‘I don’t know what that means.’

PHOTO: NICK ZIMMER

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST VINNIE CARUANA BY NICHOLAS SENIOR I think he thought I meant to write something like when we were young.

So, I wrote a song that I considered to be a punk song, and it turned out to be ‘Ski Mask.’ […] As soon as I showed him what I meant, and we realized we can just do what we want to do—there’s really no rules.”

Despite the expectations, once Caruana realized he and Reilly could just be two friends writing the shit they wanted to play together, everything clicked. Caruana adds that Cities In Search of a Heart’s pop-me-into-yourcar’s- CD -player-and-go-for-a-ride feel was intentional. “That’s the ideal,” he says. “You can remember where you were when you got into certain records

and when they clicked, like what highway or street you were on. You can see it and remember when it became your record. That’s the thing: as soon as [we] put a record out, it’s not ours anymore, it’s everyone else’s.”

The Movielife sought to discuss many things on this album, but Caruana specifically mentions humans’ waning ability to show compassion.

“It’s important to have compassion and empathy for what’s going on,” he clarifies, “but let’s also kind of remind ourselves that we have each other, and that’s huge.”

NEW NOISE 47

High on energy and catchy riffs and influenced by everyone from DEVO to The Spits to Dead Kennedys, Bushwick, Brooklyn-based punks Ellen And The Degenerates dropped their latest EP, Herb Alert, on Sept. 1 via What’s For Breakfast? Records. In October, they will descend upon FEST 16 in Gainesville alongside contemporaries like Worriers.

So, how did Ellen And The Degenerates get together? “Ellen started back in September of 2015,” the band say. “It’s been a lot of member changes for the relatively short time we’ve been a band, but I think we’ve maintained a similar spirit throughout. To me, it’s ultimately

about having fun and making myself laugh and hopefully tickling people with what we’re making.”

The five-piece’s songs fill the whole musical spectrum, from straight-on punk party jams like “Ellen 2020” to danceable tunes like “My House,” but where does their inspiration come from? “ We all have really varied taste and are from different places,” they say. “ We haven’t known each other that that long, so it’s fun to see how it meshes together. The vocals that I am most influenced by and that I try to emulate are those that have some humor to them. DEVO, Talking Heads, The Spits, and Dead Kennedys come to mind. Gwen Ste-

TELETHON-FASTIDIOUSLY PLANNED SPONTANEITY PHOTO: DANIELLE HUEY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST KEVIN TULLY BY JOHN B. MOORET It certainly would have been easier for the Milwaukee-based Telethon to simply put out a traditional LP for their third release. However, the band opted to create an ambitious 30-track concept album, The Grand Spontanean: A Tale Told in Five Acts, out Sept. 29 through

their own Halloween Records. “When we started writing songs for it, they were thematically just like a continuation of where we left off on our last LP, [2016’s] Citrosis,” vocalist and guitarist Kevin Tully says. “So, I started thinking, ‘OK, what kinds of things could really truly

“We’re off to Atomicland! We’re off to Atomicland!” chant Debt Neglector as the first song from their new album comes to a close. Atomicland—released Aug. 18 via Smartpunk Records—is the debut release from frontman Alex Goldfarb and guitarist Chris Pfister’s project, which was conceived during a drunken night of bowling. They make up half of the four-piece band, currently gaining a reputation around their home of Orlando, Florida, for dynamic speed and vocal harmonies inspired by punk legends like Descendents and Bad Religion.

world. ‘We’re awesome! America rules!’

Then, you get a little older and peel the veil away, and holy shit! […] All of that was kind of a lie.”

Coming in at under 30 minutes, Atomicland is made up of 12 catchy, aggressive songs dealing with anxiety, depression, paranoia, abuse, and societal rage. “I can’t help but write bummer fucking songs,” Goldfarb says. “The world is a scary, bummer of a place.

You grow up thinking—and everyone is telling you—we’re the best country in the

48 NEW NOISE

Debt Neglector state that Atomicland is about the erosion of those rose-colored glasses. However, they remain excited about the face of punk to come even in an era of post-truth, citing current influential bands and ruminating on what it means to be “punk” while political outsiders race to claim the counterculture as their own. “War On Women is the punkest band I fucking know that’s out there right now,” Pfister says. “They were right in the middle of that whole [Vans] Warped Tour thing, and all they’re trying to do is make sure that everybody gets their fair share.”

Pfister is referring to an onstage incident in which The Dickies’ frontman went on a misogynistic tirade directed at a protesting acquaintance of War On

ELLEN AND THE DEGENERATES-N.Y. PARTY PUNKS PHOTO: KATE HOOS

INTERVIEW BY JONESY fani is my hero, though. She’s so versatile and does such interesting things vocally.”

The sound of their latest, Herb Alert, picks up the pace set on the band’s previous output. “It’s faster and

fuck up this narrator’s day? What could throw him off balance and all out of whack?’”

After a night of watching the movie, “Poltergeist,” it became clear The Grand Spontanean… should have a “sci-fi, ‘Twilight Zone’-y, Stephen King sort of bend to it,” Tully says. The next day, drummer Erik Atwell posted an article to the group’s chat about atrocities that would occur if the Earth’s core suddenly stopped spinning. With that concept in mind, the band got to work on the record.

“There were definitely moments when I was staring at our album-planning spreadsheets, shaking my head and sweating, and wondering if the album would ever actually be finished,” Tully says. “But I don’t think any of us ever hesitated or second-guessed the concept or the scope once we’d committed to it.”

They were also able to bring in an impressive guest list to help flesh out the songs, such as Bomb The Music

heavier than our previous releases, which seems to be the natural progression of Ellen,” the band explain. “It’s got four new songs and a reworked version of ‘My House,’ because we wanted to rerecord an old song that reflected our ‘new sound.’”

Industry! alum Laura Stevenson, Fake Problems’ Chris Farren, The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay, and Less Than Jake’s Roger Lima. “We started off by emailing Franz Nicolay, who we wanted to [have] come in and punch up a few of the songs with a Hold Steady shimmer, [but] he ended up doing way more than that, because he plays a zillion different instruments,” Tully recalls. “The only person who recorded with us in person at Jack Shirley’s studio was Franz; the rest of the guest work was done remotely.

It’s all quite surreal, and we couldn’t be more stoked with how all of the spots turned out. Infinitely better—and more conceptually sound—than if we had just sung the parts ourselves.”

Telethon already have a concept for their next record, but are planning a tour beforehand, including a stop at FEST in October. “I don’t think any of us are in a huge rush to make anything new right now,” Tully says.

DEBT NEGLECTOR-BLASTING OFF TO ATOMICLAND

INTERVIEW WITH ALEX GOLDFARB AND CHRIS PFISTER BY ZACKARY MILLER Women, who were helming a safer spaces initiative on the 2017 tour. “I think that’s the punkest thing right now,” Pfister says. “When everybody in the mainstream is trying to take everything away from everybody, it’s punk to start giving stuff back. If you’ve never seen them live, it’s a transcendent thing to watch [frontwoman] Shawna [Potter]

put everybody in their place.”

“Anyone who’s there to call out abusers [is punk],” Goldfarb adds. “Punk is more than just bands: it’s the scenes, the promoters, and everyone that attends.”

He laughs, “[Punk is] everyone who shows up and isn’t a dick.”

SOOTHSAYER

INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDER KYLE JANIS BY BRIDJET MENDYUK

K

yle Janis is a fan of three things: punk rock, hot sauce, and stuff you can put hot sauce on. Basically, he lives for hot sauce. After exploring hobbies like music and art, he realized hot sauce was his thing after critiquing the hundreds of bottles he brought back from his job as a tour production assistant for the band, Chicago. From showing off one bottle at a Chicago— the city—burger joint to collaborating with bands like Less Than Jake and Old Wounds, Soothsayer Hot Sauce has become a hit in the national punk scene. However, deciding to team up with bands to perfect their own sauces was not something Janis originally planned.

“The first sales date we ever did was Dummer Fest in 2015,” Janis says.

“I played around with it and talked to [members] of Direct Hit! at a Beat Kitchen show [prior to Dummer Fest] about it. I said, ‘Hey, Domesplitter is a great name for a hot sauce, and I’m a big Direct Hit! fan.’

We put it out at our Riot Fest Pizza Party, and we’re now in year three. It went over really well. We went down to FEST a couple months later, and a bunch of bands said, ‘Can you do a hot sauce for us?’ We kind of backed into that. It’s been a cool thing, but it was a Bob Ross happy accident.”

Now, Soothsayer is a staple at fests around Chicago and an increasing number of punk festivals around the country. They also won four titles at the 2017 International Flavor Awards in July. Their three staple sauces—Perdition, Harbinger, and Omen—are available online, while the band sauces are always in rota-

tion since Soothsayer is a one-man show. While getting his peppers from local farms and creating each sauce by hand isn’t easy, Soothsayer true believers are always there to assist. Taking help from friends in the test kitchen and as merch booth volunteers, Soothsayer is a punk scene family affair. Eventually, Janis would like to open a punk rock hot dog joint and make Soothsayer a full-time gig.

Currently, he is working on a hot sauce with his favorite artist, Jeff Rosenstock. “We’re still working on the Jeff Rosenstock [plans],” Janis says. “He’s my favorite musician; I’ve been trying not to geek-out about it.

He’s stopping through Chicago for Pitchfork [Festival], and we’re looking to create something really different from what we’ve done. It is going to be something really unique and really cool.”

There are some rules to the Soothsayer Hot Sauce club, and the first is: no ketchup. According to Janis, the tomato-based condiment loved by many—except for Chicagoans—will “never, ever” be a featured sauce for Soothsayer. Also, no tabasco, which Janis says is a “bland, flavorless insult to hot sauce.” Luckily, he won’t be serving it at his hot dog-eating contests or “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” tournament where Soothsayer will fill a kiddie pool with nachos. And yes, there will be Malört—lots and lots of Malört.

GRINGO BANDITO

INTERVIEW WITH DEXTER HOLLAND OF THE OFFSPRING BY JAMES ALVAREZ

D

exter Hollands says matter-of-factly. “I’ve always been a fan of hot sauce” Holland—the leader of punk rock icons The Offspring, PhD scholar of molecular biology, and founder of the ever-burgeoning Gringo Bandito Hot Sauce brand—grew up devouring the stuff like most Southern California natives: subsisting on trips to local taquerias, Taco Bell, and everything in between. “I was sitting around pouring hot sauce on my taco one day and thought, ‘You know, it would be cool to make my own hot sauce,’” he reveals. “I spent a couple years working on the recipe, but once I got it together and kind of passed it out to friends and stuff, they were like, ‘Man, this is serious. You gotta put this stuff out for real.’”

And thus, Gringo Bandito Hot Sauce was born. “I approached it the same way I approached my band when we started, which was DIY,” Holland says proudly. “We make it ourselves. We go into a kitchen ourselves and make the bottles. Seeing all the bottles going across the conveyor belt, it’s really cool to see. I got to design my own [bottle] label; that’s like designing your own album cover!” he says fondly. “Nobody’s going to do it for you or have any interest in you until you’ve got something going, so we just went out there and hustled. We went to markets and restaurants and very slowly built a distribution network. I think now we’re in, like, 5000 supermarkets in the U.S.”

it to taste good more than I wanted it to be hot. On the scale, it’s a bit more over on the tastes-good side than hot side, but it’s still got a pretty decent kick.”

That decent kick has helped propel Gringo Bandito from the streets of Huntington Beach, California, to the global marketplace, lining shelves in Australia, Japan, and Germany to name a few—not to mention appearing in the dressing rooms and tour buses of the finest American rock bands traversing the globe. “We took it to the Warped Tour,” Holland recalls. “I knew the bands and the catering people really well, and a ton of bands tried it from that.”

As Gringo Bandito grows and continues its inevitable conquest of the hot sauce underworld, Holland has learned to strike a balance between his sauce and his beloved band, The Offspring. The band are heading out on a U.S. tour alongside Sublime With Rome in September, on which Holland plans to melt faces onstage every night before decent-kicking mouths open with Gringo Bandito afterward. “We’re going to be on the road for about four months this year, but we don’t go out for, like, four months in a row,” he explains.

“We do a few weeks out, a few weeks home. We definitely touch home base quite a bit so I can work on hot sauce.”

“I spent two years developing the recipe,” Holland shares. “I wanted

NEW NOISE 49

C

hances are that if you’ve got this here magazine in your hands, introducing you to a band with a pedigree such as Propagandhi’s is an effort in futility—but let’s give it a whirl anyway!

hat and instantly caught the band’s attention. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Hannah shares that, aside from her innate ability to shred, “she was the only person who identified as a ‘raging vegan Hispanic lesbian’ out of the 500 subHaving established them- missions, so that piqued our selves 31 years ago in Mani- interest, obviously.” toba, Canada, the band have been around longer than a fair He continues, “The way she chunk of the people who lis- engaged with us led us to beten to them. Since 1986, Pro- lieve she was cut from a simipagandhi have been fiercely lar ‘spiritual’ cloth as us,” and political and uncompromis- for a political punk band full ing. Though their first couple of activists, the ability to cofull-lengths for Fat Wreck alesce is paramount.

Chords—1993’s How To Clean Everything and 1996’s Less On Victory Lap, Hago is the Talk, More Rock—were the primary guitarist who appears epitome of skate punk, they alongside Hannah. “Beave have gradually gotten heavier played on three or four songs,

record, though—their agendas bleed into every crevice of their lives in order to actuate change more directly. In early 2017, the band promoted the sale of a shirt, the proceeds of which supported an LBGTQ organization called Rainbow Resource Center. Hannah reports, “It went really well. [We] raised a whack of money for a project that would probably rather provide services than constantly scrounge for money to keep the project alive.”

and more technical with each subsequent record. They’re one of the few bands who actually build on their sound and make every album better than the last.

ful lead, while Hannah sings about animal rights over the top. “I don’t think we really go into songwriting with any specific goals in mind in terms of themes to be tackled,” Hannah admits, “especially on this record, where I tried to keep things more spontaneous. My rule was, the first thing out of my mouth is the lyric, the first riff out of my fingers is the music.” He adds that though he didn’t always succeed in following that rule, it was “enough so that most of my songs took off in their own directions without me taking a hammer and fine-tooth comb to them.”

and Sulynn managed to somehow barge her way onto almost every song!” Hannah laughs.

“It was great.” Though most of the songwriting was done by the three longstanding members—Hannah, drummer Jord Now, here we are in 2017, and Samolesky, and bassist Todd Propagandhi are equipped Kowalski—Hago has certainwith a brand new guitarist and ly cemented her place within about to release their seventh the band. Hannah jokes that full-length, Victory Lap, on when it comes to touring, “Me Sept. 29 via Epitaph Records. and Sulynn will mud-wrestle to see who gets to play which In June of 2015, after near- parts live. Should be fun!” ly a decade as Propagandhi’s second guitarist, David “Bea- This new record is everything ver” Guillas announced that fans have come to expect from he was leaving the band to Propagandhi: intense technipursue teaching and that they cal ability draped over a strong, were looking for a replace- rigid message of equality and ment. Florida resident Sulynn opposition to oppression.

Hago threw her name into the They aren’t just political on

50 NEW NOISE

outwardly sharing their thoughts on the dismal state of U.S. affairs. Hannah asserts, “Canadians love to differentiate themselves from Americans, but it’s all on the same continuum, really.” In March of 2017, he published a sarcastic post encouraging people to vote Trump. “That was definitely some first-degree gallows humor,” he notes.

“There is nothing positive about it, except perhaps now the veil has dropped; there is no longer any question that we Some of the tracks on Victory are living in a de facto white Lap are slower and chug along supremacy. We no longer have in a melodic haze. “Lower Or- to waste time debating that. der (A Good Laugh)” instantly Now, we just fight it outright.” comes to mind. It starts out with some heavy riffage and As a final statement, Hannah then segues into a beauti- leaves fans with this: “The

Being a Canadian band does not stop Propagandhi from

alt-right—from Trump to the KKK—are modern equivalents of WWII fascists. They must be opposed by all means necessary—peaceful and otherwise. Especially otherwise.”

Propagandhi’s Victory Lap is out Sept. 29 on Epitaph Records. Catch the band on tour in North America this fall, starting Oct. 10.

PHOTO: JACKI VITETTA

NEW NOISE 51

52 NEW NOISE

I

"

’ve always wanted to be normal, but never really succeeded,” California-based singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe remarks, introducing her newest record, Hiss Spun, out Sept. 22 via Sargent House.

“So, yeah, some of this new album is about that.”

real opening swallowed by pummeling drums and suffocating melodies. Amidst the swarming instrumental is Wolfe, commanding the swirling structure of the song with her voice. “The song is about addiction,” she explains. “It’s about being in love with an addict, and it’s about being an addict.”

The groaning, destructive rumbles seem to give Wolfe more energy to find herself: the calling of her creativity, her gnawing desire to produce and to approach the daunting destructive mess of the world like finding a soulmate in the valley of one’s downfall.

Wolfe’s sixth LP is her most grueling yet, focused on finding the beauty in the world and extracting it from the core of both the earth and herself. Such is the experience of “Vex,” a song featuring Aaron Turner of Sumac and written about the hum deep in the ocean that calls creatures of the dark depths to survive, to feed.

The grim and ghastly presence entwined into the Wolfe feeds off her art and sound of Hiss Spun has more is more than dedicated to to say than the barren atmocreating a soundscape that sphere in which Wolfe rebreathes like a living be- corded. Late winter in early ing. Her dissonant swells 2017 found the musician in of thick, distorted drones Massachusetts with Kurt weave together to form 12 Ballou at GodCity Studios. songs that tell a story and Blanketing the earth was the leave an imprint like a wave deathly chill of snow and the crashing against the beach. cold touch of crisp winds.

Hiss Spun tears through the Yet, the pulse of the area was mess of her humanity, em- led by Wolfe, as heard on the bracing music that collides slow pumping shrill of “The with peace. “I write songs Culling.” about reality—whether it’s past, future, or present—and The sound of the record the truth is: this world is befits its landscape, allowfucked up, and there’s a lot ing Wolfe to truly open up of darkness swirling around about her life. “I was going us at all times,” Wolfe rumi- through a difficult time last nates. “I just try to reflect year with some health probthat, while also offering lems and was waiting to some escapism from it.” hear if I had cancer or not,” she shares. “Then, during This escapism is rendered that time, the terrible fire with brilliant strokes of dy- at [Oakland’s] Ghost Ship namics. From one song to artist collective occurred. I the next, Wolfe is the mae- couldn’t stop thinking about stro of a profound force those who lost their lives that breaks through the si- in that fire, and their loved lent air around us. “Twin ones. I was just so incredibly Fawn” is just that, its ethe- sad for them.” These events

allowed for the creation of “Two Spirit” and “Scrape,” coming in tandem to finish the record in dedication and tribute. The latter is a bold closing statement, with roaring melodies and surging drums. “Scrape” is described by Wolfe as being “more about my personal struggle during that time, looking back on what had caused this illness in me.”

“Two Spirit” presents an unfastened look at indigenous gender identities. According to Wolfe, “I had also been reading about a gender that Native Americans acknowledged called Two Spirit, wherein a person could see the world through the eyes of both genders, which is so beautiful.” In listening to the song, it is easy to hear the intimate and innate beauty of the idea resonating within Wolfe’s vocal delivery. It seems to rest within her very soul, corresponding with the rarity of allure that Wolfe searched for when digging at her skin for Hiss Spun. Yet, there is a cataclysmic shift in the track when the distortion rumbles behind Wolfe’s howls, surfacing a corrupt source of horror laced with Colonialism. “But then, of course, I read on about how

Christian settlers came and forced their own gender roles on these native peoples, which is so sickening,” she adds, “and as we know, [that] was just one the many horrors they had to face.”

Chelsea Wolfe has the ability to connect with her emotions to provide a delicate yet haunting soundtrack for anyone striving to evade the terrors in the world.

Hiss Spun ignites an aura of darkness, echoing with pain transformed into a unique gift: a considerable record packed with brooding instrumentals made to sustain through constant nightmares and prove that wading through horrors can lead to an impenetrable beauty.

PHOTOS: JACKI VITETTA

NEW NOISE 53

PHOTOS: ALAN SNODGRASS

M

att Caughthran has a day off.

Well, a day off from touring, that is.

Caughthran is the lead vocalist and mastermind behind Los Angeles hardcore band The Bronx, as well as their more romantic younger brother, Mariachi El Bronx. His upcoming day is busy with a band rehearsal and video shoot for “Two Birds,” The Bronx’s second single off Bronx V—or just V—their anticipated new album, which drops on Sept. 22 through ATO Records. “Yeah, we’re always at it,” he laughs with a slight rasp, “but it’s good to be home and get off the road. I love traveling and touring, obviously, but there is no place like home.”

“It’s nice to hang out by the beach, listen to some records, smoke some pot, and drink some beers with my friends,” he continues with a slight Southern California drawl.

“And I’m always writing and creating. I’m working on some paintings right now. But yeah, been thinking a lot about this new record. It’s been tough since the last one.”

for, and we’re stoked on how it came out, man. It just sounds amazing.”

The ideas that fueled the album’s songs are varied. Like a Hemingway short story, the themes cover the full gamut of the human experience. It’s about overcoming life’s hurdles. “Yeah, there’s some anger, some gold old fashioned anger for sure,” Caughthran explains. “It’s basically an album about being backed into a corner and having to fight for something you believe in. The songs are also about depression, love, politics, and religion. It’s about figuring out your own insanity. You get to a point in your life when you don’t take shit anymore. With the band, over the past few years, we’ve been through a lot of stuff. This band is really important to us, and we fought our asses off to keep the band alive and to make this record possible. So, this record means a lot to us.”

Having formed in 2002, this year is The Bronx’s 15th anniversary, and 38-year-old

Caughthran can’t believe the band have lasted this long. “I think I knew we would when we got to a point, like, around Bronx III,” he says. “That album was the hardest financially, because we were in the gutter, basically. We didn’t know how we were going to keep things alive, but we were able to do it. You know, it gets trickier the longer you’re a band, because you have to deal with everyone’s own personal goals and lives. And on top of that, you have to be at one creatively and build something together and maintain something together. We got lucky. We have special relationships with each other, and it’s a rare group of dudes. The relationship, I think, is everything when it comes to any longevity as a band. You can be band for 30 years, you can be a band that everyone hates, but if you’re cool with each other, you can keep it going.”

After the recent passing of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and Soundgarden and Audioslave vocalist Chris Cornell,

there has been a lot of discussion about mental health in the music community.

Chatting with Caughthrant, it’s clear this is a topic he is passionate about.

“Depression is the real deal, and it’s a motherfucker,” he says. “It can slam you down out of nowhere, and it can smack you off of the highest building on your best day. It’s a real thing, and I’m glad people are talking about it, because I think that’s the key. You have to be able to talk about stuff and need real conversations about the ups and downs of life and how the mind can play tricks on you.”

“The older you get in life, the stranger it gets,” he adds. “Sometimes, it’s short, and sometimes, it’s way too long. You don’t really know where to go sometimes. I get it. I hope those guys found peace and are in a better place now. It’s definitely tragic. I just hope artists and people can feel more open, more free to talk about it.

That’s my wish.”

Like their past albums, V is full-on sonic intensity on all emotional levels and, in strong Bronx tradition, is eponymously titled and features art created by talented guitarist Joby Ford. From the pummeling “Night Drop at the Glue Factory” to the cerebral “Kingsize,” it is a relentless rock ‘n’ roll record with a low-fi quality that will sound amazing on vinyl, but fans might notice a tenderness, an amiability that’s more prevalent on V than on their past albums. “The new record is pretty nasty all the way through,” Caughthran says. “It’s got a lot of heat—some different, weird time-traveling songs like ‘Two Birds’ and some other ones, some different sounds.”

“We wanted to make a record that just sounded nasty, just really dirty and different from anything we’ve done before,” he continues. “It’s something that producer Rob Schnapf was perfect

NEW NOISE

55

PHOTO: EBRU YILDIZ

M

ETZ are a Canadian three-piece from Ontario who deliver some of the most exhilarating noise rock around. Their self-titled debut full-length came in 2012, and they continued their audio assault with a sophomore LP, II, in 2015. These two albums were released under esteemed indie label Sub Pop Records, and two years later, their partnership continues with Strange Peace, out Sept. 22.

METZ are a complex beast: melodic yet loud, soothing yet punishing.

This time around, they step into the world of producer Steve Albini, who has worked with a wide range of revered bands such as Nirvana, Superchunk, Jawbreaker, and Cheap Trick. His polish is something many bands aspire to have on their records. “It should come as no surprise that we are fans of his work. You would have to be living under a rock not to be,” vocalist and guitarist Alex Edkins gleams. “In my opinion, he has recorded some of the best records ever made. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Pixies, Mogwai, Neurosis, Jesus Lizard, The Breeders, PJ Harvey—and the list goes on and on.”

“The way he approaches making records is very hands-off and very refreshing for us,” Edkins reveals. “It was an enjoyable experience from beginning to end: simple, productive, and gratifying. He never tried to change who we are, and I think that is why he has had the success he has. He would offer input regarding guitar tones and drums, but that was it. It was a lot of fun and changed my view on how recording should be done.”

This recording was no ordinary one, however. It was, in fact, a brand new and experimental process for the rockers, as they recorded live from the floor to tape. Edkins describes the resulting product as “diverse,” “frantic,” and “intense.”

Did METZ encounter any challenges using this approach? “Hearing

the songs sound so raw and dry was very interesting. It was both exciting and uncomfortable to be hearing everything in a brand new light,” Edkins admits. “The main motivation for recording with Steve was we wanted to break all tradition and do something completely different. We wanted to take chances and not overthink the process. It worked out perfectly. When you record live, you can’t go back and fix the little things; you either live with it or do everything again.

I really love that way of recording.”

“I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT OUR CHILDREN’S IDEA OF REALITY AND WHAT THEY VALUE IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT FROM OURS. IS THIS GOOD OR BAD? I DON’T KNOW.”

“Sink,” a percussion-driven, reverb-drenched, boisterous song which happens to be one of the most socially relatable tracks and one of Edkins’ favorites. “‘Sink’ is about living your life in front of a screen and losing touch with reality,” he explains. “It’s about creating a false persona that you inhabit to try to escape how brutal and unforgiving the real world is. I can’t help but think that our children’s idea of reality and what they value is going to be incredibly different from ours.

Is this good or bad? I don’t know.”

On the other songs he adores off Strange Peace, Edkins mentions the garage-punk closer, “Raw Materials,” which emphasizes how rough, raw, and rugged METZ can get. “I love them all, but I think ‘Raw Materials’ was new ground for us,” he divulges. “Just like ‘Sink,’ it’s about sounds and structures we’ve never done before.”

Regarding what fans should expect from the new album, Edkins ends with one simple message: “It’s the best METZ record we’ve made so far. Thank you for your support!”

“We practiced a lot. Seems pretty simple, right?” he laughs. “Steve pushed record, and we played.

That’s how it worked. We recorded 14 songs in four days. It was the first time we felt confident enough to just play live and roll tape.” The band then took the tapes home to Toronto, feeling satisfied and accomplished. There, they finessed the sound with longtime engineer and mixer Graham Walsh.

Touching on what differentiates Strange Peace from its predecessors, Edkins says it’s “almost everything. The production is different.

The songs are different and more varied. The album as a whole is more patient and has a natural ebb and flow that we’ve never achieved before. The songs reflect how we are changing as people and musicians.”

One of the standout tracks is

PHOTO: GREG JACOBZ

METZ' FAVORITE STEVE ALBINI PRODUCED RECORDS! In no particular order...

• The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991) • Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture (1996) • Neurosis - Times of Grace (1999) • Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988) • Scout Niblett - Kidnapped By Neptune (2005) • XBXRX - Gop Ist Minee (2001) • Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas (2002) • Six Finger Satellite - Machine Cuisine (1994) • Fugazi - In On the Kill Taker demos (1993) • The Breeders - Pod (1990) • Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak (1994) • Thrush Hermit - The Great Pacific Ocean (1995)

PHOTO: ESTER SEGARRA

T

he darkness was overwhelming. A demon lived inside her. Amalie Bruun—better known as the folk and black metal songstress, Myrkur—knew exactly what awaited her each night: a nightmare dimension that sought to suffocate her entire world.

“It was very frustrating going to bed knowing what was waiting for me around the mental door,” she says. “I’ve had nightmares as long as can remember, but nothing like these. The past few years have been extremely intense for me on a personal level, and I think the nightmares came from that—like some great giant storm.”

Bruun sounds strong. She’s cheerful, and there is a sunny haze transferring through her frequency. She sounds like someone who has survived a great ordeal and is now happy, letting the breeze flow warmly across her brow.

Myrkur’s newest album, Mareridt—meaning “nightmare” in Danish—is set for release on Sept. 15 via Relapse Records.

It pays due respect to its title: a totaling and densely organic record with a haunting and pure folk and black metal heart. It’s a work of art that tears at itself continuously, happily claiming the listener as one of its ripping points. Challenging and beautiful, the record looks directly into the abyss.

to the demon-infused black metal sections’ utter darkness and grotesquerie: symbolic and hypnotic. One can really feel the mental process of Bruun’s travels.

“As soon as I could start using the dreams for something creative for myself, I think I started to disarm this thing inside of me,” she notes.

“I kept sort of a nightmare journal by my bed, and I would write down symbols and narrative and feelings and everything that happened and would then turn them into songs.”

It wasn’t easy to create, but proved immensely beneficial to Bruun. A sort of exorcism was performed.

“Creating the record wasn’t supposed to by therapeutic, but it ended up being very much so,” she explains. “I can see that in retrospect—really, since I started doing interviews. I feel better and haven’t had any nightmares recently. It’s like with any trauma and psychological issue: if you take ownership, it can help relieve the feeling of being powerless, and you can really accept where you are.”

Before the world of perpetual technology, there was a simpler and harsher world: one of spirits and literature, where folk music was used to both communicate and survive. This is the world of Mareridt, with its ancient instruments and musty earth tones. Bruun dove intensely deep into Nordic and Scandinavian folk music to build this record. It’s as much a historical inquiry as it is an individualistic cry to the universe.

“I didn’t want to be polluted by anything modern,” Bruun says.

“I found all these old recordings of Swedish and Norwegian folk singers, where they’ll have, like, a Dictaphone, and they just sit and sing the folk songs of their village just to keep them alive. And there’s nothing but voice. You can hear that it’s pretty rusty, but it’s amazing stuff.”

Mareridt is direct. It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a sensual and horrific search for meaning, a total desire to confront the darkness that was surrounding its creator. The fragments of light that shine through on the album are especially bright compared

Throughout Mareridt, that rustic originality shines through. The record is scary and borne of a place where visions were never fully corrupted by technology. It’s real, like the folk songs of old. “I mean, today, we think there are 12 notes—in the West at least—but

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that’s really a new thing,” Bruun relays. “It’s only something we do now because of the Church tonality, but in folk, the middle notes survived. And you have all these between minor and major ways of singing, which people of today would think, ‘Oh, she’s pitchy,’ but in reality, that’s what it really sounds like, because they’ve copied the instruments.”

Bruun—who began her musical career as a pop singer—has always had a deep affinity for folk music.

This is what eventually led her to black metal. The connection of the two musical forms, she says, was very direct. “I think most people can agree that the two forms are connected,” she asserts, “at least in the Scandinavian department.”

brainwashed culture. It is an album that uses the fingerprints of its musical forms to ascend and transform. In the face of adversity, Bruun created a masterpiece of bravery. Undeterred, she forged a record that is every bit as courageous as her artful resonance: an album that fits nowhere easily and everywhere simultaneously. It’s powerful and feminine, circular and perpetual.

There is no need for justification.

Add some classical music—which Bruun formally studied—to that convergence, and you have the recipe for a unique musical expression: a place where the oak melds with the sun’s rays and the mushrooms bend toward distant galaxies. “Black metal was the gateway for everything coming together for me,” Bruun explains.

“The very first black metal that really moved me was Darkthrone, which I found quite similar to classical music, really. More like Wagner and the more severe stuff.

And I obviously adored Ulver.”

“I don’t ever think about genres, but I understand it,” Bruun allows.

“Like journalists or my record label has to call it something. I think there’s a high attraction to black metal with certain types of people because of some of the themes and ideologies behind some of the bands, but I mean, the thing is: I’ve never understood Feminism, and I don’t understand ideologies and ‘isms’ so much. I was kind of raised in what would now be described as a feminist way, but I cannot stand by or represent what is called Feminism today. So, that’s why I don’t associate with ‘isms’ at all, because it’s like with religion— the ones that are governed by a book, at least—the problem is they’re always going to be written and rewritten by human minds, and why would I obey a human mind? It’s more about nature and balance, I think.”

Since it was revealed a few years ago that Bruun was the force behind Myrkur, she’s had to deal with a tremendous amount of intense hatred and ignorance— primarily from a stupefyingly conservative and misogynist fan base. Mareridt defies that hateful,

The transference from Bruun to Myrkur—and back again—is something Bruun is continuously adjusting to. She never dreamed that Myrkur would become so popular, but she isn’t discouraged.

She’s willing to embrace the transformation. “Myrkur has really

become so much more than I thought it would,” she explains. “It was really a side project to begin with, but I merged into this person, I merged with the project, and now I feel like if I wanted to, say, do a soundtrack or something, it could still be as Myrkur, you know? It’s not like its own thing now; I want it to be like a Björk or a Fever Ray, you know?”

“It can surely be hard, though,” she continues. “I barely see anybody who doesn’t work with me or want something from Myrkur, and you know, this is something that’s probably only one-tenth of what Lady Gaga experiences every day, but I still find it a bit like, ‘This is weird, where is my normal life? Where are the people who don’t have anything to do with the project?’ But I think that’s anybody’s curse who wants to try to make it in music.”

Mareridt is finished, but Bruun still can’t approach it. It was so heavy, so real and so intense, that a wall has been forged. She’s happy to be free of it for now—content to walk in the woods and feel the infinite sun. But it was an artistic and human experience, for sure, something that will stand on Earth and in the infinite universe forever.

“I don’t want to go back to where I was when I wrote and recorded it,” Bruun explains. “When I had to share an album trailer with the studio the other day, I was watching it and thought, ‘Who was this woman?’ I couldn’t even recognize myself. I’ve really been in kind of a demon place. It wasn’t a great experience creating the record, but at least it was experimental, and I learned a lot, because I really went deep into traditional folk. I really learned a lot about the instruments. It was very educational. So, that is a joyful thing, and the fact that I could rid myself of these demon dreams and could pass them on to the listener, that is positive, you know? Because now, I’m freer.”

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“DEATH IS EVERYWHERE. The new album is the uttermost pinnacle of obscurity with a ritual vibe, and these low-tuned guitars crush everything in existence. We cannot wait to release this 11th Belphegor offering.”

Belphegor lead vocalist and guitarist Helmuth Lehner—better known as just Helmuth—holds nothing back when sharing his excitement for the Austrian band’s brand new record, Totenritual, out Sept. 15 via Nuclear Blast. By 2018, the band will have delivered 25 years of sinister blackened death metal. “I am still on fire and ready for new challenges and experiments [and to] try new things,” Helmuth assures.

Totenritual continues Belphegor’s formula for dark, mystical storytelling while also amplifying their sound. “Conjuring the Dead was released in 2014, and it was brutal, but when it comes to that term, [‘brutal’], Totenritual destroys that album in my opinion,” Helmuth says.

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Totenritual is much more than straightforward brutal music: it’s a visceral experience of carnage and magic. The opening track, “Baphomet,” immediately takes the listener into another world. The air becomes dense, a pure darkness lingers among its notes, and the weight of dread and destruction grows as the music progresses. “We felt it’s time for a new challenge and tuned our guitars even more down, so we reached a different low-end tone,” Helmuth explains. “[We did this] to get a more obscure and ritualistic vibe, so everything remains or becomes, musically, even more of a punch in the face. It was a great decision, and it opened a new world in my guitar playing—it is another state of extremities, sound-wise.

I despise restriction or stagnation. We always try to challenge ourselves, you know?”

Like Belphegor’s music, Helmuth’s interests lie in the realms of darkness. “You know, I’m inspired by everything I see and experience,”

he says. “I adore all types of books on the occult, strange happenings and the paranormal, necromantic, cannibalism, and serial killers. […]

Everything that is dark, anti and non-conformist grabs my attention. I had many chances during my life to learn and know that real life is often way stranger than any fiction.”

shares. “He had very pale skin and always dressed in black. His virtuoso violin technique, inhumanly fast playing, demonic technique of precision, [and] his appearance—with his long limbs, nimble fingers and joints—have led people to the idea that he must have been possessed and had a pact with the devil.”

Among the subjects most dear to Helmuth is Lucifer, a figure who breathes life into so much of his work. “I’ve always used the philosophy about Satan [or] Lucifer—the Lightbearer—in our lyrical content as a proud, exalted, majestic figure who resisted against all influences,” he says. “This archetype is one to make his own decisions, [to] walk his own path as a rebel, a mocker of the masses.”

With 25 years of blackened death metal behind them, Belphegor continue to earn their reputation as one of the most vicious bands in metal history. “Belphegor is more than a band to me,” Helmuth says. “It’s unreal to me when I think back on what I have had the honor to do so far.”

The band’s profound lyricism combines with technical mastery and vocal chemistry to create works of a brutal and chaotic nature. Totenritual stands as another excellent addition to their oeuvre, providing a sincere look into Belphegor’s world of mystery, darkness, and Hell.

The other subject matter found in Totenritual is equally rich and unique. “‘The Devil’s Son’ deals with the life story of the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini, written from his point of view,” Helmuth

T

he year is 4020, and the weed overlords have taken humans as their prisoners. One waits in his cell pondering his devastating fate: to be cooked up and devoured while his remains are left as fertilizer for the Sativa Queen. Rough times. “Yeah, it’s a pretty bleak post-dystopian world where society has been imprisoned by weed monsters,” laughs Cannabis Corpse vocalist and bassist Phil “Landphil” Hall. “It’s total sci-fi stuff, man. Totally awesome.”

Cannabis Corpse have been ripping ridiculously killer weed-inspired death metal since 2006’s Blunted at Birth, an odyssey of old-school riffs and ganja-induced madness. The band’s newest pound of smoke, Left Hand Pass—out Sept. 8 via Season Of Mist—continues the bong ripping, technically virtuosic insanity: as much a journey into a wild and apocalyptic marijuana nightmare as it is a treatise on true-blue, raw and

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beautiful ‘90s death metal. Cannabis Corpse never let you down.

“It’s a project obviously heavily influenced by ‘90s death metal,” Hall notes. “That’s what we were going for from the start. The band was actually conceived a long, long time ago by me and my brother, [drummer] Josh [‘HallHammer’rHall].

We were teenagers experimenting with pot and watching VHS tapes of Cannibal Corpse. This was way before the internet, you know, and I thought it’d be a fun idea to write songs about weed in a death metal style.”

Hall and his twin brother present a perpetually invigorating and creative concept with Cannabis Corpse. The music is so deft and rigid, it easily draws you into the greater depths the totality of the project offers, such as the lyrics and the artwork, two departments equally substantial to the band. “Death

metal can really be special because of the lyrics,” Hall says. “A lot of the time, you can’t understand what the singer is saying at first, so you really have to invest some time into it, you know? I remember reading the lyrics to stuff like Deicide and Morbid Angel back in the day. Those were some great trips, man.”

The band’s cover artwork—which has always been amazingly fantastical and hypnotic—is the initial gateway to the madness that is Cannabis Corpse. Left Hand Pass is no exception. With such intricate sagas and pulsating graphic work, one would think a comic book was in order. “One day, I’ll sit down and bust a comic out,” Hall laughs. “You know, the artwork takes so long to do, but yeah, I’ve definitely wanted to create a comic out of all these stories, records, and songs, and one day, I’ll draw it. It’s just a matter of time.”

Hall’s a busy dude. Along with Cannabis Corpse, he’s currently the bassist for thrash crossover throwbacks Municipal Waste and guitarist for hardcore punk behemoths Iron Reagan: two bands who tour and record a lot. So, when he gets the time to play in Cannabis Corpse, he

doesn’t take it for granted. They are a special band. “I’m always really psyched when I can do it,” he notes.

“I’m so busy with all my other bands that when I do get to tour and play with my brother, we make it a really special time.”

Left Hand Pass features Six Feet Under guitarist Ray Suhy. It’s his first record with the Corpse. Typically, the Hall brothers write all the band’s material and use various guitarists when playing live, but for the new record, the duo let Suhy play a bigger role. The results are wicked.

“We really let him get in there on this album and add his two cents,” Hall explains. “He brought some big ideas to the plate. You know, this is our fifth full-length, and it’s usually a pretty regimented process. I wanted to mix it up on this one, and Ray did some amazing work.”

Left Hand Pass is destined to be one of the great weed albums. Just light up that spliff and be transported to the galaxy of perpetual sinsemilla— but what’s the best weed to smoke while spinning the new record? “I’d say some O.G. Kush,” Hall laughs, “or really anything that’s green and blows your mind.”

spinefarmrecords.com

P

rovidence, Rhode Island’s savage Downtown Boys harness ferocious energy and radical righteousness to deliver political protest music that amplifies Chicana, queer, non-binary, and other disenfranchised and marginalized voices, tearing at the whitewashed and toxically masculine lead curtain of rock ‘n’ roll—and Western society at large.

“We never sat down and wrote down a manifesto, but I think it was clear to use that was the intention from the time we started the band,” vocalist and guitarist Joey La Neve DeFrancesco recalls. “We were coming out of another band called What Cheer? Brigade that would often play at protests and other political events, and we wanted to create another band that could also function as a political tool. From there, it was just writing songs about what was around us and what was inside us, and our catalog is what came out.”

Although the band’s modus operandi is reminiscent of punk rock’s idealistic spirit, the band are hesitant to credit any particular aesthetic or genre as a singular tool for change. “There’s beautiful aspects of punk, and it was certainly a huge influence in my early musical life, but I don’t think we feel any particular allegiance to punk or feel the need to revive

PHOTO: MIGUEL ROSARIO

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it or uphold some sort of torch for it,” DeFrancesco admits. “If others do, that’s fine, and that’s great. All music can be a tool for change regardless of genre. A particular aesthetic doesn’t hold the key.”

think, helps us be a small fish in a giant ocean, which is what we are. We all still have a lot of growing and figuring out to do, and we are being afforded an opportunity to do that.”

Saxophonist Joe DeGeorge adds, “People I know in artistic communities that are committed to existing with alternative power structures are starting within their own communities asking self-critical questions like these: What is our mission? Who are we including? Who are we excluding? Who is creating in our community? Who has a voice in our community? What are barriers of entry to our community? Who is empowered by this community? Who profits off of this community? Who is exploited? What are our resources for change?”

In addition to support from the legendary label, Cost of Living also received production help from one of indie rock’s most iconic figures, Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto. “As soon as Allison Wolfe from Bratmobile recommended [Picciotto] to our bassist, we knew,” Ruiz recalls. “He impacted every part of the record. From the moments of downtime waiting for the next song to track to the extreme nuances of the recordings, he was present, aware, and inspiring.”

Similar questions—and some conclusions—are present on Downtown Boys’ third album, Cost of Living, released on Aug. 11. The album is the band’s first for Sub Pop Records, and they are already pleased with their earliest experiences at their new home label. “Everyone is really supportive at the label,” vocalist Victoria Ruiz beams. “Having this type of infrastructure and platform I think is helping us to break out of expectations that are demanded by certain genres.

We are a very weird band; there is not a genre we are trying to fit into. Sub Pop, I

In addition to Picciotto, longtime comrade Greg Norman was also involved in capturing the band’s incendiary performance. “Greg is a really incredible engineer and producer, a true master of his craft,” DeFrancesco says. “He also produced our last record, [2015’s] Full Communism, and we had a wonderful time working with him on that one as well. He knows how to make us sound good and knows how to transform what we give him.”

Downtown Boys’ position is clear, their resolve is sharpened, and Cost of Living is the kind of radical statement of

purpose that is essential in our political climate, in which Western, white, cisheteropatriarchal systems struggle to maintain dominance. The band intend to deliver their vitriolic and uplifting messages during an aggressive run of international dates through October, on which they hope to not just “fight the power,” but to completely redefine and repurpose it.

“I think it’s good to check in on the things we label as power. Last month, I saw Buffy Sainte-Marie perform her song ‘Power in the Blood,’ and she had this preamble where she described how, when many people think about power, they imagine the capitalist-white-European-patriarchal structure of power,” DeGeorge reflects. “But other forms of power exist. We don’t have to think of power as solely ‘power over X,’ the kind of power that is abused. There are personal powers, collective powers, and physical powers in our world that are not valued in the canon of traditional Western power. I believe when these other powers are valued at large, we no longer so closely associate power with corruption.”

PHOTO: JACKI VITETTA

N

ew Jersey quartet, Prawn, have two full-length albums, 2012’s You Can Just Leave It All and 2014’s Kingfisher; two EPs, 2012’s Ships and 2014’s Settled; and three splits with the likes of Droughts, Frameworks, Kittyhawk, Joie De Vivre, and Moving Mountains under their belt since their formation in 2008. Now, they return to the scene with a new record entitled Run, due out Sept. 22 on Topshelf Records.

W

Recorded in the span of two weeks and written over two long years, Run is their most honest album to date, touching on intense feelings of isolation and alienation. “I was having a tough time relating to people socially, emotionally, and physically,” lead vocalist and guitarist Tony Clark admits. “It didn’t even feel negative, it was just kind of this limbo state of feeling a lot of strange things in general, like how humans are social beings, and you think you have this

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emotional understanding of someone, but there is always a barrier—it’s just you and the world.”

Filled with sweeping metaphors and ambient guitar lines à la post-rockers Explosions In The Sky, Run helped Clark take a step back and analyze the complex relationships in his life.

Four songs into the album, on “Cricket in the Yard,” he sings: “So how do we relate? / How can we relate?”

Here, he asks the grand question that encapsulates the entire album. While Clark never discovered a fully-realized answer, the mere act of asking the question enabled him to recognize and confront the absurdity of human interaction.

“I think it definitely helped me sort through [my feelings]. I always find writing music to be extremely therapeutic and a great way for expression,” he says. “Any problem or phase of life, just being honest and exploring your feelings—even if you don’t

like what you find—always helps. You don’t need to come to a conclusion or an ending with it, but [it] just won’t feel so dark and mysterious and scary afterward.”

Despite Clark’s struggle to communicate with and relate to the people around him, he has accepted that there will always be factors that hinder connections with people and foster some level of aloneness. However, at the end of the day, he believes the one unifying quality society can marvel at is the idea that everyone wants to bring good into this world, no matter what issues they might be dealing with. “I believe human nature is good-willed and that everyone wants to contribute to the world whatever their idea of goodness is and whatever their morals and ethics are,” he shares.

Clark has been a firsthand witness to the goodwill of others within the punk scene, citing specific examples

like Modern Baseball’s help hotline— which works to ensure the safety of everyone who attends their shows— and a recent moment in which one of Circa Survive’s guitarists paused mid-set to stop an instance of sexual harassment in the crowd. It’s efforts like these that affirm Clark’s stance on the inherent goodness of humans, and he says it’s especially prominent and genuine within the music community.

“I think everyone is banding together to try to make music a safe, inclusive space for everybody to enjoy, which is a really amazing thing in itself,” he says. “There’s a change of culture happening, and the coolest thing about that change is that it all comes from within the community. There aren’t external forces; everyone in the community is standing up and saying, ‘We need to stop this.’ That’s the most effective way change can take place—from within.”

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he World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die make nonconformist music that transcends the realms of indie and emo. Their 2013 full-length debut, Whenever, If Ever, was relatively straightforward, but their switch from Topshelf Records to Epitaph Records for its 2015 follow-up, Harmlessness, saw them uncaged.

Now, Epitaph will release the band’s third full-length, Always Foreign, on Sept. 29. The new record represents their darkest and most real perspectives on the current sociopolitical climate in America. “[The album] definitely came from fear in the face of ICE, [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” vocalist David Bello—who is half Puerto Rican and half Lebanese—states. “With white supremacists getting more power in the U.S. government, we wanted to make a really direct statement that people are people and inherently deserve geographic freedom.”

“In our older material, we talk about ‘home’ and feeling ‘at home,’ but a lot of us have been living in

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different cities and drifting around just trying to find an affordable place to live for most of our lives,” he continues. “On a lot of levels, nowhere feels ‘home,’ and being a white-passing, mixed ethnicity person who grew up lower-class in rural West Virginia, I wrote a lot of lyrics for the record in response to my own feelings of deterritorialization that came along with seeing rich racists get their win in 2016.”

have gone because of it in one way or another, and this song was our way of wishing that they could still see us—or we could see them.”

The band’s anti-discriminatory stance is best reflected on “Marine Tigers,” which deals with Bello’s parents planting roots in America, while “Fuzz Minor” touches on Virginia at present. “Since I’ve passed as white most of my life, I grew up hearing—and continue hearing—bigots saying the shit they say when they think only white people are around,” Bello says. “It feels extremely liberating to take some of those words and yell them during ‘Fuzz Minor.’”

Getting these personal statements out wasn’t an easy task, as the band faced internal challenges with a lineup shift. “Nothing is ever certain, but I knew from the minute we all got in the same room together to play music again after the lineup change that we would be continuing,” Bello assures.

“We took a few months off after a particularly stressful tour, then were able to use mewithoutYou’s practice space for about a week, and we ended up writing the songs from the second half of Always Foreign all in a row. They fit together in order right away as we were writing them together. After a few days of being in the same room, we all felt so good and united that we set the goal of making it into a full-length, and it came very smoothly from there.”

But it’s not all overtly political. Drug abuse and the grief experienced by those who’ve lost loved ones to addiction are felt on the warm acoustic, “For Robin.” The vocalist reminisces, “A lot of my friends

“Whenever, If Ever wasn’t done at Silver Bullet Studios with our guitar player Chris [Teti] doing the engineering and everything, so at this point, it feels like an experiment with our process more

than anything,” Bello elaborates.

“That record also was started before I joined the band, and that lineup change was a big part of how the album came out. For Harmlessness, I think we found our form for how we work on a full-length, where we hole up for a month at Silver Bullet and record with it being all of our primary focus for the whole time. We streamlined that for Always Foreign by having much more peaceful and efficient communication, where we were— with some minor exceptions—all 100 percent on the same page about the material and the process of getting it to its final state every step of the way.”

The result is clearly something the people of the world need to hear.

Musically, it’s yet another splendid experimental work of art that’s “all over the place,” according to Bello, but has a singular philosophy. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die believe that love won’t tear us apart—it’ll stitch us together. That concept trumps everything.

Political hardcore crew Stray From The Path have never been a band to back down on their beliefs. They’ve spoken out in the past about police brutality, income inequality, and a number of other social issues, but when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the band could have never imagined the way their fan base would react.

“Judging from our last U.S. tour where we supported Architects—and from where we just got back from Europe five days ago—any of the red states kind of don’t like us anymore,” guitarist Tom Williams says. “We’re doing better than ever in spots, but then, we go to Texas, and 200 people come to the shows, and we don’t sell anything, and people just stand there and watch us. We’ll play Houston, and the guy who owns the venue, as soon as we get offstage, he gets all in our face and starts shit with us.”

Stray From The Path’s latest album for Sumerian Records, Only Death Is Real— released on Sept. 8—doubles down on the band’s political leanings and calls out many of the inequalities that have been worsened by the new president’s administration. Williams stresses that though he doesn’t agree with a lot of the politics going on in his country, he’s still proud to be American. He understands that Stray From The Path have to represent America while on tour, but he believes speaking out about various problems is their way of doing that.

PHOTO: JACKI VITETTA

“I definitely criticize my country, and I want what’s best for it, because we get the, like, ‘Well, if you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?’ kind of thing—but that’s the cheap way out,” Williams says. “We literally dedicate our lives to speaking what we see to be true and, again, criticizing the way it works, standing up for what we think is right and opposing what we think is wrong. Whether that means sometimes losing fans and losing money—which is our livelihood—that’s a big deal for us to do it, but we still do it, because it’s what we believe. We do it

because we represent our country.”

Only Death Is Real is relentless from beginning to end, jam-packed with aggressive breakdowns and groove-oriented riffs. As has become standard for Stray From The Path, the record features some high-profile collaborations with the likes of Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris, rapper Vinnie Paz, and Every Time I Die frontman Keith Buckley. “That was something where we were trying to get him on the last two [albums], but it didn’t really work out, and this time, we were finally able to have him,” Williams says of Buckley’s guest appearance.

Only Death Is Real also marks the band’s first album with new drummer Craig Reynolds, formerly of The HAARP Machine. They added Reynolds after their former drummer, Dan Bourke, stepped down following eight years and four albums with the band. “Onstage, offstage, in the studio, everything has been so good with Craig,” Williams says. “This is not to take anything away from Dan; we love Dan, and he gave a lot of his life to this band and helped get us to where we are now, but something about Craig—he cares about nothing except his drums and working out,” he laughs. “He literally lives and breathes drums.”

The new record also acts as somewhat of a tribute to late Architects guitarist Tom Searle, who tragically died of skin cancer in 2016. Given Stray From The Path’s long friendship with the band, Williams says they had a difficult time grasping tragedies in the news, in which criminals received minimal consequences while their friend was dying. “It definitely affected us a lot, and honestly, it’s definitely going to be a big part of this record,” Williams shares. “Not that I would ever exploit a friend’s death—it’s not directly about him, but it was really just about us being so angry that we live in a world where all of these people who are so horrible and do unspeakable shit get to live. That was the hardest thing for me to understand.”

NEW NOISE 71

PHOTO: JOE CALIXTO

W

hen it comes time to drop a new record, everyone wants to know: “Who is the producer?”

In the rock world, it’s generally assumed to be one, maybe two engineers, but for Seaway’s third full-length, Vacation, the Ontario band hit the studio with not one, but four producers. “It was a make or break record for us. So, for this record, we really wanted to be prepared going into the studio,” frontman Ryan Locke says. “We did preproduction for a week with Derek Hoffman and then another week with Alan Day, who both worked on [2015 sophomore LP] Colour Blind. […] Then, we took those demos, and we brought them to L.A., and we recorded the record [with Mike Green and Kyle Black]. That was a new experience for us.”

“We kind of wanted to get out of our comfort zone and really immerse ourselves in the record,” Locke adds. “So, that’s why we went to L.A.” Traveling away from their home in Canada became a major theme for Seaway’s latest, out Sept. 15 through Pure Noise Records. “The album is called Vacation, but the lyrical content kind of paints ‘vacation’ in a different light,” Locke explains. “Being away from family and loved ones, missing important events, being away and touring—I think that’s where a lot of the influence on that comes from. It’s just the highs and the lows of being away.”

This motif rings out most heavily in the record’s first single, “Apartment,” a classic dual-vocal jam about simply wanting to stay home with a significant other.

“It’s kind of the song that I think existing Seaway fans will be really stoked on,” Locke notes, “but then, new fans listening to it may get a taste of what’s to come as well. It’s the first single, but there’s some different sounding songs on the record. So, for the first single, we wanted to kind of ease it in: let people know that we’re still Seaway, but also, there’s a bit

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of a change coming, we did play with our sound a little bit.”

Tracks like “Lula on the Beach” and “London” hint at edgier, more versatile angles for the pop punk group. “When we started Seaway, I think we had this idea in our head of how we would sound and the kind of band that we would be,” Locke says. “I think every release we’ve ever put out, we’ve gotten closer and closer to that. And I think Vacation is the kind of sound that we wanted to be when we started the band.” Locke nods to the record’s second single as his prime example. “‘Something Wonderful’ I think really showcases the direction that we’re going,” he shares. “It’s got a poppier, kind of rock-y, fun vibe that we’ve been known for. We’ve been known as a fun, upbeat band, and I think ‘Something Wonderful’ really captures that sound. It’s one of my favorites on the record for sure.”

Branching out from their pop punk realm, Seaway also hit up Caleb Shomo of the hardcore band, Beartooth, to drop some vocals on “Scatter My Ashes Along the Coast, or Don’t.” “We’ve never toured with them,” Locke says of Beartooth.

“We’re not really in the same genre— they’re a lot heavier than us—but we’re good buds with those guys, and they’re big fans of our band, as we are of their band, so it just kind of made perfect sense when someone brought up: ‘Let’s get Caleb.’”

Seaway may not have had the chance to tour with their friends in Beartooth yet, but that hasn’t stopped them from lining up three tours to support the release of Vacation. Locke notes that they played Australia for the first time in August, after which “we’re pretty much on the road till, like, almost December,” he says.

Sept. 6 through Oct. 20, the band will be on the road in the U.S. with Four Year Strong, before heading back to Canada for a run with Silverstein in November.

PHOTO: DANIEL TOPETE

“Don’t want to hear those vile trumpets anymore,” Protomartyr frontman Joe Casey protests on “A Private Understanding,” the first track from the Detroit noisesmiths’ fourth record, Relatives in Descent. It’s the kind of moody musing fans have come to expect from Protomartyr, whose sound is grounded somewhere between the gothic romanticism of Bauhaus and Nick Cave and the surlier guitar rock of their Motor City brethren.

Out Sept. 29 via Domino Recording Co., Relatives in Descent is indeed another musical trek along the darker side of the human psyche—and a reliably solid one at that—though this was not Casey’s initial aim. His slurred speak-sing delivery often sounds like he’s fighting his way through an earlymorning hangover, but he originally hoped to bring something more lyrically uplifting to the band’s latest set. “I tried, I really did!” he says of his attempt to steer the band out of the dark corner they often get painted into. “But I found, first of all, that my expressions of happiness seemed trite and small next to the music the band was coming up with. Worse, the words seemed to be steeped in certainty, and I really, really despise when I’m dead certain of something. I’m usually wrong.”

“Secondly,” he continues, “it seemed weird and ill-timed to write and release a ‘sunny side’ record after three that weren’t.

Vacuousness has a place in this world along with everything else, but singing silly love songs in 2017 is beyond me.” No love songs here. Instead, the band have described their latest as a philosophical meditation on the meaning of truth and how the word has become flexible to the point of near irrelevance.

Given how difficult it’s become to parse the truth amidst all the bullshit amassing in the world, it’s both a timely and understandable angle—though Casey, perhaps wisely, opted not to comment on our commander-in-chief and the current state of world affairs.

However, there’s a fine line that’s walked on Relatives in Decent between conveying feeling lyrically and delivering a pointed message. The new record is colored with an aura of paranoia and frustration, but Casey’s lyrics are far from preachy or exact. “Right now, I think a song ‘saying something’ means putting at least a bit of effort in lyrical expression,” he says. “I certainly wouldn’t tell anybody to write message songs.

Message songs have a weird way of sounding condescending or all-knowing when, really, all you should be trying to accomplish is presenting an emotional state set to music. I’m too uninformed to tackle a pure message song, unless it was something mundane like ‘Eat Your Greens’ or ‘Drink a Glass of Water for Every Two Alcoholic Drinks Consumed.’ Stevie Wonder’s ‘Don’t Drive Drunk’ is a good example of a pure message song.”

Protomartyr began work on their new 12song slate in early 2016. Guitarist Greg Ahee brought some ideas to the table, which he, Casey, bassist Scott Davidson, and drummer Alex Leonard pushed and pulled in different directions. “A Private Understanding” was one of the first songs the group tackled and one Casey says set the tone for many of the tracks that followed. “Hearing it, I knew it was a good example of how we could write in a new way,” he says. “I think we generally try to push things forward a bit. I personally like to experiment wildly and then pull back and edit until something sounds ‘like Protomartyr.’ Songwriting for us is a good mix of inspiration, experimentation, repetition, deadlines, and putting the work in.”

To that end, Protomartyr found a suitable producer in Sonny DiPerri of Animal Collective, who tracked with the band in Los Angeles for two weeks in March.

Recommended by the band’s new label, Domino, DiPerri crafted a workmanlike atmosphere—“No pool parties with celebrities,” Casey says—for the four-piece to settle into. Ahee took sonic inspiration from the likes of The Raincoats, The Pop Group—with whom the band recently collaborated—and art punk legends and fellow Midwesterners, Pere Ubu, this time out. “We had the songs and ideas about how they should sound and flow, and Sonny was able to capture all of this with no fuss or muss,” Casey concludes. “It can be impossible to please everyone in a band, and somehow, he managed that.”

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Y

ou wake up, slap the alarm, feel a furious panic—warranted by the audible assault by an electronic device at 6 a.m.—and prepare for a sluggish morning. Your socks aren’t clean, you’re going commando, but rest assured, you’re putting on that badass band t-shirt. You know the one: it’s that shirt from that show four years ago. That was one hell of a night. That shirt always reminds you of the ballistic energy, the fun you had with your crew. T-shirts are printed everywhere, but some are created with an extra bit of love, and you can feel it woven straight into the cotton.

Odds are at least one of those favs cuddling your clavicle came from Jakprints, a printing company with heart.

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Jakprints began when co-founders Dameon Guess and Jacob Edwards united their screen printing and graphic design skills to create goods for their own bands around the turn of the century. Unlike the rest of the industry, which often uses toxic printing materials, the duo adopted environmentally-sound practices.

“It was unheard of. The whole industry was petroleum-based,” Creative Director Ted Barnes says. “I asked Dameon about it years later, and he told me even his ink vendors at the time were trying to talk him out of it.” Jakprints also use

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a swanky Heidelberg press to cut down on waste, and they recycle everything they can.

These folks even plant a tree for every order made. Working with an organization called Trees for the Future, they’ve planted over 290,000 trees—that’s a small forest they’ve given back to the planet. About this admirable mission, Marketing Coordinator Nadia Bennett says, “It was very important to them to be able to be sustainable and leave a smaller footprint than what we came in with.” Along with responsible eco efforts, the company has a positive impact within their own localized community as well. The staff are commonly seen working with cleanup crews in Cleveland and donating to the city’s homeless shelters and food banks.

This isn’t the standard ethos of the printing business; Jakprints is a unique company. These things can’t be said about other printers, who tout their “500 business cards for $15” deals, then vomit up half a grand of irresponsibly-made cards on shitty stock that was once a lush forest housing happy families of birds, squirrels, or capuchin monkeys. Not cool, other printer! Why can’t you be more like your cool younger brother, Jak?!

The company’s model is also very approachable, both for those who

have been printing flyers, shirts, and postcards for decades and for young designers and art students just starting out. Even if you don’t understand the ins and outs of printing with a bleed or CMYK versus RGB, your anxious mind will be put at ease. Staff are always available to answer questions for the uninitiated design rookie or band without a clue. They won’t scoff at your questions like the bearded troll at the bike shop, they’ll just help you print that t-shirt of Trump kissing Pence on the forehead at bedtime—or whatever is it you’re planning.

Prior to becoming a staff member, Barnes had a similar experience.

“Jakprints never hesitated to teach me while addressing an issue and

connect me the supervisors who would make sure I was stoked,” he recalls. “It honestly felt like Jakprints wanted me to succeed as much as I did.”

As the world becomes more connected, it becomes more apparent that we are one community. We all want a life of fulfillment and happiness. The next time you’re slipping into that threadbare t-shirt you love, remember that night with your friends. Remember how good it felt to be there. That’s your community. Whether you’re a printing company or just another person starting their Wednesday by going commando, remember what inspires you and strive to create something positive.

PHOTO: KEITH MARLOWE

W

hen The Spits’ Sean and Erin Wood were little kids in rural Michigan, their mother painstakingly handmade costumes for them to wear on Halloween. In contrast to the gruesome plastic masks of off-the-shelf Walmart costumes so prevalent today, the Wood brothers’ costumes were sweet, pastoral, and quaint.

“The costumes my mom made were goofy as hell,” guitarist and vocalist Sean Wood says. “I think they were supposed to be clown costumes, but I’m not too sure. She put a lot of love into it, and that always made me really appreciate Halloween.”

The image is of two young fellows trotting down the street, candy sacks in hand, innocently enjoying the children’s holiday, but somewhere along the way, something happened.

By the time Wood and his future Spits bassist and vocalist brother, Erin, were in their early teens, they weren’t dressed as clowns and asking for Snickers bars anymore. They were speeding through fields on dirt bikes, doing doughnuts on top of farmer’s crops. They were blaring Mötley Crüe from their car at earsplitting volume. They were walking down isolated highways with shotguns, firing on any inanimate target in sight. They were, as Wood says, “getting fucked over by the law.”

“What happened was we grew up in a hillbilly area, but then, we moved to the city and got some culture,” he

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elaborates. “We got some good music, and we were just crazy. We used to see people high on meth every day.

We were never bored. I don’t know why we did those things—but—but— but yeah!” This gnarly impulse eventually led to the brothers to form The Spits, who took the unrelenting throttle of the Ramones and added a jagged, grimy edge that made every song sound like it was recorded in a rusty barrel.

Their songs were as nihilistic as they were spiteful, with titles like “Die Die Die,” “Violence Cup,” and “I’m Scum.”

Oh yeah, they also sang like they were robots.

But one thing remained from their more innocent years: the band wore el cheapo costumes in concert.

Sometimes they dressed as lowrent witches, sometimes they were cardboard killbots, and sometimes

PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

they were—um, sex Zorros? Wood explains, “We grew up watching the God Bullies in Kalamazoo. They got dressed up, and it really added to the show. It’s like putting on a play.

When you go see a play, it’s a performance. We want to put on a show because we’re having fun.”

“After so many years, you run out of costume ideas,” he admits, “but we have to do it, because we’ve been doing it for so long. So now, each person has their own persona, and that’s how he dresses.” As for Wood’s character: “My persona, well—I don’t know. It’s—it’s the bad boy of rock ‘n’ roll? I can’t tell you, because it wouldn’t make sense. You need to see it for yourself. Think, like, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick. What the hell is he? You make it up.”

As always, an underlying current of chaos reverberates through the band. They are supposed to be recording their new studio album—

their sixth LP in a row entitled The Spits—but in true Spits form, the winds of chaos have blown that plan aside for now. “The new album?

We—we haven’t put it to the side,” Wood clarifies, “but right now, we’re working on a tour cassette. We’ve got some good songs that we’ve been jamming. Also, we want to put out a Halloween cassette—if we can finish it up by Halloween.”

Although they did record a few tracks in a proper studio, the band have abandoned that plan and are currently recording in their natural element: on a 4-track in Erin’s house. As for the lineup, chaos continues to rule the day as usual. Wood says, “We now have Tim Tim The Robot, Erin, me, and Lance Phelps.

No, wait. Lance is our manager, I guess. So, I guess that means the band is me on guitar, Erin on bass, Tim Tim The Robot on keyboards, and Wayne Draves on drums.”

At any rate, the new tracks—the titles of which the band are keeping under wraps—find The Spits storming as hard as ever with their buzzy, chunky, ripping sound. “We grew up on old metal and old rock. I like it all,” Wood says. “We got into punk in our early teens, so we grew up on rock. We grew up rockers. I hate saying ‘punk rock.’ I don’t see a division between the two. It’s just rock.

We play rock. We’re a rock band. We rock.”

NEW NOISE BOOK NOOK PRESENTS...

“I had to check my memories against others’,” he says. “I made a lot of calls.”

He called everyone from his ex-wife and the mother of his first child, Amy Keim of Nausea to Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan—who was also writing a book—to his brothers.

Helping Miret was writer John Wiederhorn, who also collaborated on “Ministry: The Lost Gospels According To Al Jourgensen” and Scott Ian’s “I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax.” Miret is ardently gracious when speaking of his writing partner. “He created a flow,” he shares. Miret had the memories and the experiences, but Wiederhorn molded the text. “I wanted to make sure it was me telling the story,” he says, and Miret’s individual voice certainly stamps the paragraphs as they stream. The New York attitude and nostalgia embolden the lessons embedded.

Again, Miret celebrates Wiederhorn’s symbiosis. “He was very hands-on,” he says. “It wasn’t just a guy helping me edit. He became part of it. He loved it!”

Miret recalls Wiederhorn’s enthusiastic embrace of “My Riot” and how he showed true dedication and ownership.

INTERVIEW WITH COAUTHOR ROGER MIRET

BY HUTCH Roger Miret has just returned from a tour with Agnostic Front, the band he began fronting in 1983 and has defined for the last 35 years. This European stint included 30 shows over 31 days. Miret returns to a record-breaking, mailbox-crippling, recycling-bin melting Arizona heatwave topping out at 117 degrees—but the heat is worth returning to his family.

Agnostic Front have consistently put out albums and tour most of each year.

Despite all the effort and energy Miret pours into his band, he found time to write an exhaustive novel—released on Aug. 29 via Lesser Gods Publishing—recounting both his and Agnostic Front’s early lives. He has been incarcerated. He has been homeless, raising a family in a New York City squat for years. He raised two more

kids with his current wife, vocalist Denise Miret, in a nice house in Arizona. He has been sweated by cops, gotten in fights, and run drugs through airports. With all that turmoil, Miret still refers to writing “My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts & Glory” as “the hardest thing I have ever done.”

Miret credits Lars Frederiksen with telling him to write the book when Frederiksen was producing Agnostic Front’s 1999 album, Riot, Riot, Upstart. “It took 20 years,” he says of the process, then conjures the true adversary to writing his story: “I’m very introverted.” He repeats, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

While combatting his introverted tendencies, he also found that the trouble with telling one’s story is that it is inevitably tangled in many others’ lives.

The book goes deep, starting with Miret’s birth in Cuba and arrival in the U.S. “This really is an immigrant story,” Miret states. “My Riot” then transitions into early N.Y.C. scene days and Agnostic Front’s first life, from 1983 to 1992. The reader is, as Miret puts it, “fast forwarded” through other experiences and the reunion to the present, but Miret wanted to keep it focused on the early days. “Otherwise, this would have been a 1000page book!” he exclaims. Maybe in a sequel…

Here, his fans are welcomed into his life over 295 pages and 40 chapters.

The introductions by Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed and Al Barr of The Bruisers—oh, and that Dropkicks band—set a tone. Then, the spotlight is all Miret’s. That spotlight has the grit and grime of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the ‘80s—warts and all—tempering the glare, but illuminated is Miret’s generous nature, fighting spirit, genuine character, and sincere demeanor.

EPs VATICAN: ACHE OF ETERNITY: SORROW CARRIER RECORDS After their 2015 EP, Drowning the Apathy Inside, and a four-way split, Vatican return with a regenerated sound, recorded by Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.

This young band’s energy and eagerness in the expert hands of these two legends results in a cold and menacing sound. Molasses-thick riffs and savage breakdowns thrust this straight edge Georgia quintet forward. Influenced by savage metalcore such as Zao, Martyr A.D., It Dies Today, The Banner, and Poison The Well, Vatican unleash fire and brimstone. Aug. 25 sees the release of this EP. –Hutch

SPLITS SLOPPY SECONDS / DANGERBIRD: SPLIT 7”: FAILURE RECORDS AND TAPES

Sloppy Seconds: the name alone communicates that you’ll be offended. With the subtlety of a trench coat flasher, Sloppy Seconds busted into punk rock in 1989 with Destroyed. With a sonic sense of the Ramones, they harnessed lyrics about food, sex, and bad movies. Here, Sloppy Seconds release their first new song in nine years. It is the tale of legendary New York City rocker Johnny Thunders’ demise.

Dangerbird come from St. Louis, Missouri, with a rootsy rock ‘n’ roll approach to their brand of punchy punk. Solid musicianship and toe-tapping music elevate their two tracks on side B, which are short and energetic, but with a stripped-down early rock ‘n’ roll sound. –Hutch

REISSUES PKEW PKEW PKEW: +ONE: SIDEONEDUMMY RECORDS

Named after the childhood onomatopoeia for laser shots, these Toronto punks are a bit deeper than one would expect, and they sure do take their songcraft seriously. The band have teamed up with SideOneDummy to reissue their 2016 self-titled debut under the new name +One, which features a brand new song, “Cold Dead Hands.” Pkew Pkew Pkew are all hooks and singing about pizza, skating, and beer, but there’s a real depressing honesty here; the album has a sense of age to it. Drinking and pizza are always awesome, but eventually, they exist to fill a void. If that feels relatable, punk over 25, Pkew Pkew Pkew are there for you, with expertly crafted skate jams. –Nicholas Senior

RERECORDINGS LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY + SUBATOMIC SOUND SYSTEM: SUPER APE RETURNS TO CONQUER: MVD ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

It’s been more than 40 years, but dub master Lee “Scratch” Perry has decided to revisit his seminal 1976 concept album, Super Ape. Alongside Subatomic Sound System, he jumps right back into his Jamaican sound, bringing in Ethiopian horns and percussion, with plenty of beats and bass. “Times changed. It’s not about Black Ark [studio] anymore,” Perry says. “Evil get squeezed. Too much vanity. Now, I come to conquer ragga and destroy raggamuffin, conquer raggamuffin with a new beat and a new sound of dub.”

The album comes out on digital, CD, and vinyl formats on Sept. 22. –John B. Moore

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COVERS GREG ASHLEY + THE WESTERN PLAYBOYS: SELF-TITLED: THIRD MAN RECORDS

Greg Ashley won’t be pinned down. His latest detour is a country music EP, Grey Ashley + The Western Playboys, a six-song collection—released via Third Man Records on July 7—covering tunes made popular by folks like Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, and Stonewall Jackson. “These are tunes me and The John Brothers [Piano Company] would play at this Oakland restaurant, The Boot and Shoe Service,” Ashley recalls. “When someone in the band would be out of town or we got tired of playing jazz, we started learning old country tunes that were fun to play when you’re drunk. I decided to record it at my studio for the hell of it.” –j. poet

NO USE FOR A NAME: RARITIES VOL. 1: THE COVERS: FAT WRECK CHORDS

Over the past three decades, No Use For A Name put out a slew of covers, many tucked away on 7”s or comps. Thankfully, Fat Wreck Chords finally put many of these tracks all in one place. Among some of the stellar covers on Rarities Vol.1 are the ‘80s novelty hit, “Turning Japanese,” by The Vapors; a great interpretation of Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police”; and a cover of KISS’ piano ballad, “Beth,” that is so earnest it’s hard to tell if they are being ironic or honestly feeling the emotions in the song. Rarities Vol.1 came out Aug. 11 on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download. –John B. Moore

B-SIDES THE FLATLINERS: THE GREAT AWAKE AND THE GREAT AWAKE DEMOS: FAT WRECK CHORDS

Happy 10th birthday to The Flatliners’ Fat Wreck Chords debut, The Great Awake! To celebrate, the label is pressing a very limited run of 500 copies on colored vinyl as part of the aptly titled Fat Classics on Color series, available on Sept. 4. In addition, Fat is also putting out The Flatliners’ The Great Awake Demos through their Fat Wreck Chords Orginal Demo Series. The 7” features three demo songs and will be available on Sept. 14. –John B. Moore

FOUR YEAR STRONG: SOME OF YOU WILL LIKE THIS, SOME OF YOU WON’T: PURE NOISE RECORDS

On Sept. 8, Massachusetts’ Four Year Strong will put out an album’s worth of rarities, unreleased originals, unplugged classics, and reimagined standards, including a stripped-down version of the fan favorite, “Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die." The band plan to celebrate the 12-track album with a tour that will keep them on the road for much of the fall. The album is available on vinyl, CD, and via digital download. –John B. Moore

DELUXE PRESSINGS THE SISTERS OF MERCY: SOME GIRLS WANDER BY MISTAKE BOX SET: RHINO ENTERTAINMENT

Released Sept. 1, Some Girls Wander By Mistake is a four-LP box set highlighting long-running post-punk band The Sisters Of Mercy’s exquisite formative years. The collection features tracks originally released in 1980 and also showcases their debut EP, Alice; its follow-up, The Reptile House; and the single, “Temple of Love,” all of which were released in 1983—quite a productive year. Two singles, a 1992 reworking of “Temple of Love,” and the Under the Gun 12” are also included, among other worthy offerings. In conjunction with the release, the band are heading out on a European tour from Sept. 1 to 27. –Janelle Jones

VULTURES UNITED: I STILL FEEL COLD: BLACK NUMBERS / OUTSIDER ART / RED FLAG

It’s been seven years since the release of their full-length debut, Savages, but Vultures United have finally issued a follow-up with the ambitions two-part concept album, I Still Feel Cold. Comprised of 30 tracks, the first half fall under the subtitle “Memory Loss,” leaning more toward a traditional punk and hardcore sound, while the second half, “Adulthood,” draws on a variety of influences from Fugazi to Pixies. The album will be released Sept. 22 on double CD, double-LP, and digitally via Black Numbers and Outsider Art. The cassette version will be released by Red Flag Records. –John B. Moore

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CULT OF ERINYES: TIBERIVS: CAVERNA ABISMAL RECORDS Step into the netherworld and never return. Belgium black metal phantoms, Cult Of Erinyes, are a duo on the bleakest side of the moon. The band’s third full-length, Tiberivs, invites the lucky listener into portals stark, bleak, and shiny: a trek out to ancient Rome in the Tiberius era. The group have an honest second wave of black metal vibe running through their whispery darkness; an arty and swift proficiency drives its linear frames.

Tiberivs is a shadowy stone that bursts with moments of dark infusion and shiny solos that cut through parallel dimensions of Hell. This is your go-to cassette for candlelit chess, wine, and ganja sessions. The dream will swirl you up and spin you some pleasant nightmares—if you dig that sort of thing.

STORM ROSS / SHOTO: SPLIT: ALREADY DEAD TAPES AND RECORDS Two Michigan artists work the infinite end of the spectrum with a bodacious split cassette. Storm Ross—the electronic and guitar madman from Ann Arbor—kicks things off with the extended freeform beauty, “I Wish I Could Have Known You.” The song careens and dips into caverns dark and tactile, a wistful hard jazz meets a Neil Young circa “Dead Man” sort of painterly extension. It’s wild and touching.

Kalamazoo’s grind-doom-prog-ers, Shoto, fill out the backend with two industrial-math numbers that’ll have you walking toward the intersection of Botch, Earth, and Raoul Björkenheim.

It’s super arty, super lean, and super worthy of continuous playback. Epic tape!

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MINDKULT: LUCIFER'S DREAM: CALIGARI RECORDS Sleep, my friend. Sleep until the darkness has exercised its crawling madness and made a tunnel of nightmares out of smoke and doom.

Virginia’s Mindkult—the throwback project of sole member, Fowst—brings this ghostly vision to your mindscape.

The first full-length, Lucifer’s Dream, is the sort of thing you light the evening’s ceremonial bong rip to: the perfect maddening portal to crawl into for some unmatched psychedelic vibes. A little bit Sabbath, a little bit Trouble, a little bit punk rock, and even a touch of early and loose Grateful Dead, this is a wicked little analog nugget for the collection. Friday night just got dark and brazen.

TANATOR: DEGRADATION OF MANKIND: REFORESTATION RECORDS Man, this is some ridiculously rigid blackened thrash. Russia’s Tanator create some intensely icy force on their second full-length, Degradation of Mankind, the sort of record that makes you think of Siberia and fires and storms of pain. The Saint Petersburg-based trio offer quickening shards of raw, angular riffs, wondrously abhorrent choruses, and punkness that sticks like a metallic bond. You’ll be whipping and cracking like the Batmobile on acid, spinning around all evil with goblets of witchery and resonance. Who’da thunk that the best thrash of the year would come all the way from Mother Russia? …But it did.