New Noise Magazine - Issue #26

LESS THAN JAKE

PROPAGANDHI ERGS!(REUNION) MUSTARD PLUG A WILHELM SCREAM SMALL BROWN BIKE DEAD TO ME KNAPSACK LEMURIA MEAN JEANS THE MENZINGERS LATTERMAN(REUNION)

DILLINGER FOUR OFF WITH THEIR HEADS THE FLATLINERS SAMIAM STRIKE ANYWHERE TIM BARRY MASKED INTRUDER BOYSETSFIRE BRAID F.Y.P(FINAL SHOW)

3 DAYS. 14 VENUES. 300+ BANDS.

YOU BLEW IT / TENEMENT / SHELLSHAG / PEARS / ELWAY / TOYGUITAR / GOLDE N PELICANS / RADON / PUP / RVIVR MAC SABBATH / SAVE ENDS / CAPTAIN WE’RE SINKING / AJJ / GUNMOLL(REUNION) / VACATION / AUDACITY / ANNABEL TIMESHARES / SOMOS / PRAWN / AFTER THE FALL / FREE THROW / CHEAP GIRLS / CHIXDIGGIT / SUCH GOLD PINK RAZORS(REUNION) / NIGHT BIRDS / UNITED NATIONS / THE COPYRIGHTS / DOWSI NG / TORCHE / SMITH STREET BAND IRON CHIC / BIG EYES / BIG D AND THE KIDS TABLE / TWELVE HOUR TURN (REUNION) / PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS ROZWELL KID / JEFF ROSENSTOCK / TOYS THAT KILL / BROADWAY CALLS / WAR ON WOMEN / RED CITY RADIO / FLOOR IRON REAGAN / UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TO CANDYLAND / SLINGSHOT DAKOT A / AGAINST ALL AUTHORITY(REUNION) DRUG CHURCH / SUNDIALS / CHRIS CRESSWELL / ERICA FREAS(RVIVR) / MICROWAVE / EAST CAMERON FOLKCORE / WET NURSE SIGNALS MIDWEST / DIKEMBE / STEVE ADAMYK BAND / POST TEENS / ANTARCTIGO VESPUCCI / ARLISS NANCY / ARMS ALOFT CHRIS FARREN / THE UNLOVEABLES / WE ARE THE UNION / OSO OSO / DIGGER(REUNION) / COASTER / TIRED FROM NOW ON(REUNION) MAX LEVINE ENSEMBLE / COKE BUST / LIFTED BELLS,BROADCASTER / PRETTY BOY THORSON AND THE FALLEN ANGELS(FINAL SHOW) WORSHIP THIS / TILTWHEEL / RUNAWAY BROTHER / NORTHBOUND / THE BROKEDOWNS / HOLD TIGHT!(FINAL SHOW) / REGENTS CHOKE UP / WOLF-FACE / HOSPITAL JOB / IAN GRAHAM(CHEAP GIRLS) / WHISKEY & CO. / TEEN AGERS / SUCH GOLD,ROGER HARVEY FRAMEWORKS / CREEPOID / DIRECT HIT / SUCCESS / BAD COP/BAD COP,BLACKLIST ROYALS / SONIC AVENUES / A**HOLEPARADE JOE MCMAHON(FULL BAND) / HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL / MIKEY ERG(FULL BAND) / LOOK MEXICO / THE TIM VERSION / SHALLOW CUTS

AND MANY MANY MORE.....

MORE INFO AT THEFESTFL.COM

B

ack in 2010, Alex Lichtenauer had the idea to start up an indie label after moving out of their parents’ house in Baltimore. They landed in Keene, N.H., for college and managed to get a dorm with likeminded students Nick King and Sean Mahoney, who were also interested in starting a DIY label.

Get Better Records truly started to grow when a new recording studio opened in Keene, and the two entities struck a symbiotic relationship, wherein Lichtenauer booked shows and brought bands in to record and support the studio, while also churning out new releases for the label.

Running parallel, as often happens, Lichtenauer, King, and Mahoney

were also in a band together, and touring helped the label expand even more. “The more I traveled, the more the label’s roster started to grow. I used to carry a huge distro suitcase to every show and tour, but that was back when the label was mostly CDs,” Lichtenauer remembers. Flash forward to the present and Get Better records has signed bands from Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, and Canada.

Unfortunately, Lichtenauer’s band encountered a setback when their singer and guitarist claimed to have stomach cancer. Throughout the course of a tour, Lichtenauer found out the claim was, in fact, untrue.

They quickly quit the band and kicked the duplicitous member out of the house they were sharing at the time.

Since this tumultuous origin, Get Better Records has been through a few different transitions. Shortly after these events, Lichtenauer was asked to join the Greenville, N.C., band, Rubrics, the members of which were also interested in helping with the label. “I figured the extra help would be great, especially since we would finally be living in the same town and playing in the same band,” Lichtenauer recalls.

While they had a great time in the band, released many records, and went on several tours, Lichtenauer eventually quit Rubrics. From there, Get Better moved to Philadelphia, where Lichtenauer is now hard at work building the company with their partner, Jess.

The lion’s share of Get Better’s output is from bands who are queer, trans, and/or femme. “Pretty much anything other than a band of straight white males,” as Lichtenauer puts it. However, their overarching creed is basically: don’t be a jerk. Lichtenauer adds, “We have a zero tolerance policy. If you can’t be a decent human, then I don’t want you connected with the label.”

Many people ask if the label’s name is a reference to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign from 2010, especially considering their preference to hype queer artists. Lichtenauer explains, “The main reason we named the label ‘Get Better’ Records was—if people didn’t like the records we released, then they could simply go out and ‘get better’

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records that they enjoyed.” Some of the heavy hitters and more active bands of late on the label’s roster include Peeple Watchin’, G.L.O.S.S., +HIRS+, DMFK from Tijuana, Nutter from Asheville, and DEAFKIDS from Brazil, the majority of which are touring often and releasing tons of material. Lichtenauer celebrates this work ethic, because, as they say, “It’s a huge bummer when you release a record for a band that quickly breaks up.”

Get Better is vigorously branching out into screen printing—so they can print merch ad hoc—and festival ventures. Back in spring 2011, Lichtenauer booked the first Get Better Fest, which was successful enough to earn a follow-up the next year. The fests raised money for homeless shelters and the grassroots movement, Food Not Bombs.

The bands who have played include The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Code Orange—formerly Code Orange Kids—Spraynard, Peeple Watchin’, Timeshares, Vacation, and over 30 more. The third installment of the fest took place in Philadelphia the last weekend in April and benefitted The Attic Youth Center, the only organization in the area that exclusively serves LGBTQ youth.

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To support The Attic Youth Center, go to atticyouthcenter.org/support-us. New Noise also encourages you to seek out and support the queer youth center(s) near you!

In light of the recent attack on Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, this installment of FQP will not feature one individual’s truth. Instead, we take a moment to reflect on our own truths. To acknowledge our fragility and endeavor to be gentler with one another’s humanity. To acknowledge our differences—not to divide us, but to unite us through a deeper understanding of one another’s struggles. To mourn everyone who has been stolen from us and to celebrate that their light is alive and burning in our hearts, pushing us forward through our exhaustion, our pain, and our fear, and giving us the strength to continue fighting, to continue loving, and to continue surviving.

effort, their debut LP, No Beer, No Dad, out on vinyl and cassette Aug. 5 via Lauren Records and Making New Enemies. Three of the songs off the LP were written before Blowout released the EP. “After Brennan joined the band, we reworked these songs and wrote the rest of the album over the next six months,” King explains. “We actually finished the album closer, ‘If-Else-If,’ two days before we entered the studio.”

PORTLAND SUNSHINE- BLOWOUT

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST TRAVIS KING BY JOHN B. MOORE

When the Portland, Ore., group Blowout first came together as a band, ambitious is probably not the term many would have used when describing their future. “[Vocalist and bassist] Laken [Wright] and I first started playing in 2012. We never intended to start a band,” says Travis King, one of the four piece’s two guitarists. “After writing a

few songs, we started playing with Michael Henahan from Walter Mitty And His Makeshift Orchestra on drums, and after a few months, everyone was too busy to keep playing.”

Like a pinball being flung through a machine, cllctyrslf roll through every possible genre connected to emo on --​ it started shifting. The Philadelphia band collect dream-pop synth tunes, shoegazing guitar lines, and glamorous indie rock songs with spastic posthardcore progressions into a 12 song record released May 27. Much like the music’s creation, its vinyl release was possible thanks to a collaboration between several different labels—Near Mint, sorry girls records, and Girls Cartel Records—each offering a different splatter or color.

being inspired by cosmic microwave background radiation. “It was kind of like the Doppler effect for sound: when things are moving closer to you, they feel a lot different and move away from you really, really quickly,” Fendlay explains.

This concept is viscerally spit out on “I was razor blades,” a tune about the toxicity of continuing an already failed relationship. Fendlay comments, “Every time that retry happened, it got a lot worse.” It’s a maddening conclusion to come to and is led off by the lyrics, “If I knew how to calm myself down / We probably wouldn’t talk as much.”

The band have had a hell of year, replacing multiple members and ending up with a grand total of seven. Vocalist and guitarist Lucas Fendlay is the mastermind behind the project. The vocalist wrote ​--it started shifting after

Even down to the cover art, it feels as if cllctyrslf are ready to crack. What was going to be a frozen landscape became a face, spattered with vulnerability. cllctcyrslf’s strongest punch is the frantic ropes trying to hold themselves

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Blowout took a hiatus until early 2014, when they added their roommate Nick Everett on drums.

They borrowed some gear and recorded their first EP, We All Float Down Here, in their basement. The response was strong. “After a few more shows and a short California tour with Pretend, Brennan Facchino joined up on guitar, rounding out our current lineup,” King says. It’s that new lineup that can be heard on the band’s latest

The result is a strong nod to ‘90s emo that is still clearly original.

“We wrote the album over a year and a half, so it’s hard to pin down exactly what we were listening to,” King admits. “Hop Along, Good Luck, Blood Orange, and The Exquisites were constants during that period. We’re rarely listening to the same music at any point, which is a blessing and a curse.

It can make writing difficult, but resulted in a wide variety of songs for the full-length.”

Blowout are taking off on a full U.S. tour in August with plans to start work on a new EP or full-length later in the year.

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ARTFUL PANIC- CLLCTYRSLF

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST LUCAS FENDLAY BY SEAN GONZALEZ together, not buckling under the weight of anxious yelps or scattered musical influences. “By the last song of the record, that feeling [of feeling included and having everything you want] has

moved far away,” Fendlay admits, coming full circle, but he still manages to wrap the 32 minute record with every ounce of confidence one needs in a genre blending composition.

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The word of the day here is “different.”

Gone Is Gone are a different supergroup, featuring noteworthy musicians from Mastodon, At The Drive-In, and Queens Of The Stone Age. The band are clearly worth the hype. They’re also different in the sense that they are more a project than a group, with the band viewing Gone Is Gone as a creative, fun aside—a perspective that fuels their time together. Their debut self-titled EP, released

by Rise Records on July 8, showcases the band flexing their sonic muscles in various ways. Each of the tracks has a unique flavor.

Drummer Tony Hajjar explains the band’s origin: “[Guitarist and keyboardist] Mike [Zarin] and I had been doing trailers since 2009 and just had completed scoring ‘Splinter Cell: Blacklist’; we’ve luckily had a lot of luck with trailers. There was this one track that kept getting used by different movies, and it just hit us that this might be a cool song.

So, we called [guitarist] Troy Van Leeuwen, because we’d been friends with him for a long time. It’s funny, because that first song never became a song on this album; it was just the idea that sparked it.

We wrote the whole EP musically first, and [vocalist and bassist] Troy Sanders came in and literally brought it to life for us. It’s a great feeling when you’ve been with a project for so long and weren’t really sure where it was going to head.”

“When we got together, we just vibed together so well as a four piece,” he continues. “That’s why we knew this has more legs than one EP or record. We just know that every time we have a break thus far, we have gone out of our way to get together and do more. One week, it’s a video; another, it’s a show. Our calendar looks insane, because everyone is so busy, but we find those holes and do them. The trajectory here is a long one, because it’s fun and easy, and we have such tremendous musical capabilities and schedules.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST ALEXANDRA MORTE BY JOHN B. MOORE

The two connected with bassist Cheyenne Avant in 2013, and so began the band. Night School combine a raw garage rock sound with a cool, classic ‘60s girl group vibe to create music that is unlike most that’s coming out of the Bay Area right now. Their first full-length release, Blush, came out June 17 on Graveface Records. “I’d say the biggest influences on this record were Weezer and The Beach Boys, though The Shirelles are always an inspiration for me as well,” Morte says. “I wanted to try to emulate the cool harmonies of the Beach Boys with a Weezer Pinkerton-type sound for the production.”

Those influences can be heard all over Blush. “I do think our sound has evolved from our first EP, [Heart Beat],” Morte says. “I wanted a really lo-fi sound for that one and decided to move away from that for Blush. As far as influences, I feel

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER TONY HAJJAR BY NICHOLAS SENIOR The band’s name sets the tone for how Hajjar views the band’s future. “‘What is gone is gone’: that’s my little interpretation of the band,” he says. “When our days pass in this project, it’s gone, and

that’s it, but when we’re together, that’s when we have the opportunity to create as much as we can.”

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PUN PUNKS - MALE GAZE

DAYDREAM SOUNDS- NIGHT SCHOOL

The origin story behind Oakland, Calif., based garage band Night School starts with a piece of fruit. “Oranges are a conversation starter and an important part of society as a whole,” says vocalist and guitarist Alexandra Morte. “I helped Baylie [Jimenez, future drummer for Night School] peel an orange, and the rest is history. Where would anyone be without oranges, ya know?”

PLAYING THE LONG (FUN) GAME- GONE IS GONE

like the sound came pretty naturally with the influences I had in mind.”

Influences aside, the main difference between recording the EP and the fulllength was time. “The two other EPs were both recorded in one day,” Morte explains. “Having more time helped us to really fine-tune how we wanted the songs to sound.”

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST MATT JONES BY TIM ANDERL As their chosen moniker suggests, weirdo-punk quartet Male Gaze are almost too clever for their own good. At least according to vocalist and guitarist Matt Jones, who confesses that King Leer, the laugh-out-loud title of their second LP for Castle Face—the label he copilots with Thee Oh Sees frontman John Dwyer—may be a bit too obvious. “Most people that have talked about the record have pointed out the punnery,” Jones shares. “‘Too clever by half,’ I seem to recall. While I think it may be that too many people get the joke, I’m terrible with titles anyways, and it seemed better than some of the other crap I came up with. I was pretty attached to Fall Catalog for instance, but I got outvoted.”

For the follow-up to their 2015 release, Gale Maze, the clever collective comprised of Jones, bassist Mark Kaiser, and drummer Adam Cimino added former Blasted Canyons and Tiaras member Adam Finken on second guitar and called in resident Castle Face engineer Chris Woodhouse to work his wizardry behind the boards. “I ‘recorded’ our first record, and the idea was to go in with [Woodhouse] and steal all his good ideas while we worked on the second record so I can use them on the third,” Jones explains. “He’s a weirdo genius within spitting distance. It doesn’t get better than that.”

King Leer—which dropped June 17— ramps up the fuzzy, scuzzy characteristics of Gale Maze, steering away from post-rock leanings and placing additional emphasis on wall-of-sound pop rock mastery. “Part of that is the studio talking, and there’s quite a bit of breakup talking too,” Jones reveals. “A lot of these songs came in a kinda raw period right as and after [my relationship] all fell apart, and it felt like when you’re hungover and you want to hear something soft and sad and comforting. I kinda gravitated towards shimmery, jangly sorta sounds and what thrashers there are on the record. It was kinda like a return to life, gazing outwards again.”

Whether or not this is the band showing their softer side with sweeter melodies and some heartfelt introspection, there is still plenty of chaotic, fist-pumping fury in them. “At the rate I’m writing, we’ll have another record by next spring,” Jones says. “I’d like to do a few quick trips in the U.S.—we’re doing the West Coast coming up, and I haven’t been to the East Coast in years, so there’s talk of a little bit of that. I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing and hope I get better at it and that people keep digging it. I’m honored and grateful anyone cares, to be honest.”

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The Toronto based group Pkew Pkew Pkew—also known as Gunshots and Pkewx3—started where all great love stories do these days: on the Internet.

Vocalist and guitarist Mark Warne took to Craigslist to find a handful of bandmates for his blossoming punk project. Only one person responded to his absurdly specific ad, but soon, he and vocalist and guitarist Ryan McKinley had the beginnings of a band. At the heart of it all, these drunk punks built their group on a foundation of cheap beer and firm friendship. Soon after Warne and McKinley met, vocalist and bassist Emmett O’Reilly and vocalist and drummer Dave Laino found their way into the mix. Not much has changed since their inception.

The Canadian quartet released their selftitled debut via Royal Mountain Records on June 10. Recorded by Jon Drew— who helmed Fucked Up’s monumental debut, Hidden World—Pkew Pkew Pkew manages to reveal the true essence of the band in a mere 21 minutes. It focuses

on the inevitability of growing older, the fight to stay young despite that, and getting drunk to forget the former while reveling in the latter. With tracks like “Mid 20s Skateboarder,” “Before We Go Out Drinking,” and “Drinking in the Park,” Pkewx3 write honestly and heedlessly.

“We try and keep things pretty light. There are a lot of serious bands around, but one of our main priorities is to not be that way,” O’Reilly admits. “We have a lot of fun together, so we mostly write music to reflect that. It’s supposed to be a good time.”

For the most part, Pkewx3’s songs serve as a true reflection of their laidback lifestyle, with some embellishment added for effect. “We are definitely not skilled skateboarders, but we are definitely skilled beer drinkers,” O’Reilly says. “We make up for the lack of skill on skateboards with enthusiasm. We do what we can.” What isn’t exaggerated is the band’s ability to turn their anthemic narratives into everybody’s singalong songs.

BEERS AND PARTY ANTHEMS-PKEW PKEW PKEW

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/BASSIST EMMET T O'REILLY BY SAMANTHA SPOTO Pkewx3 headed out to play with their Canadian pals in PUP this June, and hit the road with Direct Hit! in July.

While this will be their longest stretch of touring to date, they haven’t lost sight

BRUTAL BROOKLYN BUSKERS- UNLOCKING THE TRUTH

of their priorities. They geared up in true Pkew style by packing mostly beers.

“That’s probably the most important part,” O’Reilly says.

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LOUDER THAN ANYTHING ELSE - BIB PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS VELEZ

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST MALCOLM BRICKHOUSE BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON The tunneling streets of New York City are but a dream: built by dreamers, traveled by dreamers, and swallowed up whole by dreamers. The endless oceans of pavement and far-reaching plateaus together create layers of dimensional possibilities for all romantics passing through; the streets are alive, burning with a unique ferocity.

This is the dreamscape where three young friends from Brooklyn were creatively birthed. Unlocking The Truth—a thrash metal trio with a dizzying array of contemporary modes—initially blossomed by setting up and ripping it DIY style, in front of subway entrances, on street corners, and wherever else they could squeeze their gear. The band’s highly anticipated first record, Chaos— which dropped June 17 through independent distributor, Tunecore—has the power and lighting individuality of said streets: unique, punk, gritty, and real.

Vocalist and guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse and longtime friend, drummer Jarad Dawkins, formed the band in 2007, and soon after, they persuaded their buddy Alec Atkins to play bass. The trio haven’t looked back since. Brickhouse recalls, “After we played amateur night at the Apollo Theater in 2012, and after that whole competition experience, my parents had this cool idea: that we should hit the streets and play for ev-

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eryone in the city.” Initially grooving as strictly an instrumental band and gaining some big-time exposure as such, the band soon found themselves invited to huge festivals like Coachella and Heavy Montreal. They also forged a more dynamic vision. “We play heavy metal and heavy metal needs vocals,” Brickhouse states. “The songs needed more, and so I started singing.”

Writing thrash tunes injected with a nu-metal and punk sensibility, the band stand unique amongst their family and peers. “None of our friends or family really listen to heavy metal,” Brickhouse notes. “It’s all hip hop, soul, blues, and R&B music. But, everyone really digs our stuff, and I feel like all those forms of music that are all around us have had a real influence on our sound. Our music is heart based.”

Chaos is a behemoth of technicality and spirit, cruising righteously with a particular NYC speed and vision. There’s a lot to dig about the album: riffs bristling with black metal urgency, sections gushing with Machine Head-like mannerisms, dashing hues abound with Living Colour lushness, and killer melodic metalcore bursts at every apex. The future is for dreamers, and Unlocking The Truth are wielding one giant dreamscape.

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST BROCK BY JANELLE JONES Omaha, Neb.’s Bib are a new band, but they’re making a lot of noise already.

Their current release, a pummeling hardcore gem, is a six song demo cassette released in October 2015. “Our drummer Bill spent a total of 100 hours dubbing 300 tapes in real time on both sides of the tape,” explains guitarist Brock, stressing, “That’s 20 minutes per tape. [He’s] a true hero.” The well-received demo will soon be released as a 7” on Deranged Records.

Bib started with guitarist Jon and vocalist Nathan, who wrote all the songs on the demo and then added Brock on second guitar, Bill on drums, and Alex on bass. After the band as a whole tweaked the songs to their current state, Jon and Bill recorded the demo in Bill’s basement. “We did it all in one take,” Brock says. “We just recorded it like we were playing a show. I think it turned out great.”

The guys quickly started playing locally in Omaha, and Brock says that, every now and then, their friend Justis—who is also in the band Lemonade—plays third guitar. Then, they played a few fests, including Oklahoma’s Everything Is Not OK, and went on an East Coast tour this past March. “We’ve been really lucky and have met some awesome people and got a chance to play with too many great

bands to mention,” the guitarist says.

“We haven’t been a band for a year yet, so we’re just getting going.”

Bib played shows throughout June, and from July 15 through 17, they’ll hit Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. On Aug. 27, they play St. Louis’ PU Fest. In the works for later this year are some West Coast dates. When asked what it’s like seeing Bib play live, Brock says it’s all “sweaty punks in a tangled distortion of limbs,” and adds, “It will probably be loud.” A new release is also on the horizon for Bib, who, according to the guitarist, are always writing. “We just finished recording five new songs for a 7”,” he says. “That will be out sometime later this year, also on Deranged.”

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Musician and actor Peter Donovan was working on a movie near Bakersfield, Calif., when he found the muse that would inspire his latest album in the form of Jo: a tall, 70-year-old woman wearing a bright yellow dress and Coke bottle glasses, hanging out at a local bar. “The town was pretty small, so after being there for a couple weeks, we pretty much knew all of the familiar faces that we would see out,” Donovan recalls. “But I was out one night after a long day of shooting, and there was this older woman sitting next to me that I’ve never seen before, and we just started chatting. She was from the Midwest and was driving out to the coast, and she immediately went to work telling me these stories about her family and her life in this crazy town.”

He soaked up as much of the conversation as he could, set some of the stories

to music, and the result is Elk City, the record he self-released under the moniker All The Real Girls on June 17.

Along with Donovan, the record features members of Death Cab For Cutie, Built To Spill, Long Winters, Pell Mell, and Lashes.

“The stories were incredible for sure, but I think the biggest thing that inspired me the most was just her fearless attitude in the way that she felt and thought about everything,” he says of Jo. “She was one of those people where one moment, you think she’s completely crazy, and then in the next moment, you’re convinced that she’s actually got everything completely figured out.”

While a tour has yet to be scheduled, Donovan says to expect some shows in the future, but with a lineup different from the one features on Elk City. “As far as being a one-off, I’m not sure that’s

RAISED ON STRANGEWAYS - DRAA

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JO...- ALL THE REAL GIRLS

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST PETER DONOVAN BY JOHN B. MOORE necessarily the right term,” he says. “I still do see the band as an evolving entity for now, and there are a lot of other things and new ideas that I want to explore

musically, so there will definitely be more All The Real Girls records, but the cast of characters might be different.”

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NEVER A CHORE NOR A BORE - DUST MOTH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HANNAH LAZENBY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST MACANDREW MARTIN BY JOHN B. MOORE Most bands who start out in high school end up being little more than a name, a logo scribbled on notebooks, and maybe a few tepid jam sessions in someone’s basement before drifting apart. But the origins of the Tempe, Ariz.’s Draa— currently making a name for themselves by deftly blending dream-pop and postpunk—actually start all the way back in math class. “[Drummer] Seth [Ponzo] came to me in the first week of our senior year high school economics class and asked if I was looking to start a band,” vocalist and guitarist MacAndrew Martin recalls. “Our aspirations were entirely different in the first leg, and it definitely has taken some time to be as sure of ourselves as we are now.

Releasing the [self-titled] EP and [‘Losing My Charm’] single, as well as lineup changes, have all helped the band move forward greatly since then.”

The band self-released their EP last year online and made a small run of CDs. The response was so positive that they are prepping a vinyl release later this summer through Funeral Party Records. For the “Losing My Charm” single, the track was rerecorded after the EP and after the most recent lineup change. “‘Losing My Charm’ was always

my favorite from the EP, but it didn’t feel right the way it was released before,” Martin says. “We all felt like giving it another go, but in the way we would approach writing it now. During the EP recording, we spent a lot of time lingering on overdubs and dancing around with our pedals, but this time around, we wanted to keep everything more clean and direct.”

There is a definite Smiths and Morrissey vibe to the song, an influence Martin cops to easily. “[Bassist] Matthew [Johnson] and I share a really strong connection with The Smiths in particular,” he admits. “I grew up with my parents relentlessly playing Strangeways, [Here We Come], and they’ve always been an important band to me. Johnny Marr’s approach to song structure and guitar technique is something that has really influenced our songwriting. We love jangly guitars, and similarly, we are also influenced by The Beatles, Oasis, and R.E.M.” Along with the upcoming vinyl release, Draa have a few California dates lined up and plan to begin writing for a new record.

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I N T E R V I E W W I T H I R E N E BA R B E R A N D RYA N F R E D E R I KS E N BY N I C H O L AS S E N I O R Scale—out July 22 via The Mylene Sheath—is a wonderful introduction to Seattle’s latest supergroup. Dust Moth features members of These Arms Are Snakes, Narrows, and Giza, and their debut offers up a very unique take on doom, darkwave, shoegaze, and evocative rock. Scale is a haunting listen, enveloping the listener; yet, unlike many experimental rock bands before them, Dust Moth are never a chore nor a bore.

This is masterful, beautiful music that is as assured as it is awesome.

Every member of Dust Moth is equally important to the sound they capture.

Guitarist Ryan Frederiksen agrees, “Every person brings something unique to this band, and that’s the way we like it. Everybody has ideas, and we’ll start with a riff or concept and run with it.

Sometimes, it takes a few hours to finish a song, and sometimes, it takes months.”

That level of care is evident throughout this purposefully dense, dramatic record.

Vocalist and keyboardist Irene Barber uses her charismatic voice to great effect. Barber expands on the album’s themes, saying, “We didn’t set out to write the album with a central concept in mind. However, after it was finished, some themes did bubble up and make

themselves apparent. It’s crazy to me how that happens. It’s something I don’t notice when we’re writing the individual songs. I do see a love story being at the center of it all. The greater focus for me is on the unknown and the void, the moments making up a transition of some kind. These moments are filled with excitement and anxiety, but I think the subject matter of some of the songs tries to find comfort in this state, tries to illustrate how love and connection are there commingling with the darkness.

There is a balancing act happening in a lot of the imagery: lights and darks, love and emptiness. I don’t feel it is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, it’s just kinda there being very ordinary,” she laughs.

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ISSUE 26 NEW NOISE

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BLACK CROWN INITIATE

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hen a band hit the ground running with a successful EP after only two years of existence, navigating the music industry can feel like running a marathon with 50 pound weights strapped to their legs. For extreme metal upstarts, Black Crown Initiate—who were first introduced to the world with their Song of the Crippled Bull EP in 2014—their time in the music industry has felt more like running a marathon while strapped to a rocket.

The band signed with eOne Music in June of 2014 and released their debut LP, The Wreckage of Stars, that September. Since then, they have been touring virtually nonstop with the likes of Napalm Death, Voivod, Deicide, Crowbar, and Cattle Decapitation. Somehow, the band also managed to record their second fulllength, Selves We Cannot Forgive, due out July 22. “With this one, we had more time,” clean vocalist and

NECROT

F

resh from finishing a tour with SkullShitter, Necrot are taking time to refuel. Drummer Chad Gailey beams with pride, asserting, “We destroyed the East Coast and Midwest. We got to play with some killer bands and party every night. Fallzballzboyz forever!” The band, having just released The Labyrinth—a compilation of their out of print demos—via Tankcrimes, can finally take a breath in their much beloved hometown of Oakland, Calif. “There are shows happening all the time and many bands and individuals that contribute to keeping the underground music community going,” Gailey says of their hometown. “There is something for everyone here.”

Gailey explains the band’s origin: “The band was formed by [vocalist and bassist] Luca [Indrio], [guitarist] Kyle [House, of Acephalix], and I in early 2011. We wanted to start a band with both metal and punk influences. Kyle left the band a few months after we started jamming, and Luca and I continued as a duo, releasing two demos by ourselves.

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guitarist Andy Thomas shares. “We spent about nine months writing it, so there was a lot that we did purposefully based on things we didn’t get to do on the first album.”

For Thomas, the extra time allotted for recording Selves We Cannot Forgive gave Black Crown Initiate the ultimate advantage. “Really, the main thing was that we had the time to make sure that every aspect of the album was really deliberate,” he explains. “Like, there were some things on the first album that I feel like I missed compositionally. I guess certain parts went on for too long or not long enough, and with this album, we really had the time to make sure that everything was exactly as it should be. We had the time to experiment, try different ways to approach every song and get them exactly the way we wanted them.”

Since the release of Wreckage…, there has been a widespread debate among fans about the album’s superiority over the EP, a conversation that will only become more difficult on July 22. “I believe that my job is to make the best album that I can or channel the best music that I can,” Thomas

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR SWEENEY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST ANDY THOMAS BY BRANDON RINGO says simply. “If I do that and I’m honest—a lot of people really loved our EP, and I know there’s a lot of talk about which was better, but the truth about both of those albums is that they were made because of the time that they were made in our lives. If I make an honest album that is the best that we can do, then it really isn’t our responsibility necessarily how people receive it.”

“It’s not like when Metallica did Load or something, like, ‘Holy shit,

this is entirely different,’” Thomas adds. “I don’t feel we’re doing anything like that. Also, we started the band on the foundation that, sonically, we’re going to do a lot of different things all the time. You put out an album that’s quality, and if the public loves it or hates it, that’s really up to them. It can be stressful to think about, but there’s really nothing you can do as long as you do your best, which we did.”

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[Guitarist] Sonny [Reinhardt] joined near the end of 2012.” Those demos—2012’s Necrot and Into the Labyrinth, plus a third in 2014 entitled The Abyss—are intensely sought after in underground circles. The Labyrinth collection will appease the unfortunate fans unable to find these classics, now remastered by Dan Randall of Mammoth Sound.

Gailey explains that this approach of releasing demos first was not an omen of a struggling band. “We wanted to release a series of three demos to eventually be compiled on one album before we did anything else,” he says. “We want to tour as much as possible and go out of the country to play shows again.” That focus and drive have ironed a powerful death metal outfit. The Labyrinth drips with brutal grit. Necrot prove their tenacity and labor.

In death metal—hell, in most rock based music—the riff is the nexus of each song. Necrot begin differently.

Gailey shares, “Luca would write the songs and I would put drums to it. Most of our songs started as bass and drums. We would add the guitar later. We have done this since the beginning and it works. For the newer material, Luca has been playing the tracks for me on guitar first to

I N T E R V I E W W I T H D R U M M E R C H A D G A I L E Y B Y H U T C H get a clear idea of the song structure.

Sometimes, we have different ideas of what we should add or take away from the song. Usually, by the time we record, everything is laid out the way we want it.”

And yes, to answer the salivating fans’ pulsating question, there will be new material from Necrot soon.

The remaining months of 2016 will be very busy for the band, as Gailey happily states, “We are playing with our friends Venom Inc, Undergang, and Spectral Voice over the next few weeks. We have eight new songs for our first full-length album written. We will be recording the songs in mid-August at Earhammer

with Greg Wilkinson.” Though the band’s name conjures images of a decomposing corpse, this feels like a rebirth.

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DESPISED ICON

I

n 2010, the world said goodbye to the deathcore pioneers in Despised Icon. The band spent the ‘00s touring the globe and carving out a name for themselves in the extreme metal underworld, releasing some of the wildest, most technically proficient and insanely catchy, breakdown laden death metal ever put to tape. After six years away from the scene, enjoying the fruits of domestic life and recharging their collective batteries, Montreal’s loudest sons are back with a beast of a new album, the aptly titled Beast, out July 22 on Nuclear Blast. They are ready to shatter eardrums once again.

“In 2010, we were pretty burned out, stuck in a state of constant touring,” vocalist Alex Erian says of the band’s final days before their split. “At some point, you grow up a little, and most of us wanted to start a family or had good career opportunities, so we decided to call it a day.” After 2009’s epic Day of

MURDEREDMAN

C

leveland based noise merchants, MURDEREDMAN, are a perfect fit for Brooklyn based Aqualamb Records. The label is notorious for their love of physical packaging, particularly their 100plus page printed art books. MURDEREDMAN’s self-titled sophomore LP, due out on July 22, features visually arresting images that work in tandem with the group’s multifaceted, contrast-heavy music.

Vocalist David Russell and guitarist Ron Kretsch collaborated on the massive undertaking of pairing the visual with the auditory, and the results are fantastic. Russell is the artist and Kretsch was in charge of the layout. “[Russell’s] work right now looks like we sound right now,” Kretsch expands, “and getting a lot of free reign to play with those images was a pleasure.”

Russell’s work features stark black

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Mourning album and subsequent farewell tour, the dudes in Despised Icon all went their separate ways… until a fateful night with The Black Dahlia Murder brought them all back together. “We just needed a long break. Fast forward to the year 2014, our old bass player Max [Lavelle] plays in The Black Dahlia Murder, so we all went out to see him play in Montreal,” Erian recalls. “It was the first time we had hung out together since we broke up in four years. One thing led to another, and we just started bonding over all the stories, like, ‘Hey, remember that tour?’ I guess we all started to really miss it. The kids being a little older made it a little easier to get out and do some reunion shows for fun, and that gave us the kick in the ass to keep going.”

2015 saw Despised Icon effectively rise from the grave to play a few high profile reunion gigs. Reunited with original bassist Sebastien Piché and previous guitarist, longtime producer, and media wizard, Yannick St-Amand, the band set out to make some brutally heavy racket once again. “Playing those shows and meetings the fans

and white collages that mirror the music perfectly. “I wanted a cover that was iconic and singular, yet still open enough for the viewer to draw their own conclusions,” Russell explains. “Since the beginning of the band, black and white just seemed to represent our overall style best. My collage art employs a mixture of improvisation and deliberate design that obscures and strips down appropriated imagery into texture and pattern. I made somewhere around 40 collages for the album and book, and [the album cover] pretty immediately felt like best visual representation of this collection of songs; it’s simultaneously busy and open.”

That’s a perfect explanation of what makes the group’s self-titled record so alluring. There have been a huge number of noisy bands who play around with textures, but MURDEREDMAN nail the contrast in their sound. It’s chaotic, caustic, and challenging, while also being quite melodic, moving, and moody.

The band aren’t just giving you music; they’re giving you art.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ALEX ERIAN BY JAMES ALVAREZ and everything sort of reignited passion, we sort of lost it,” Erian that flame,” Erian says fondly. “At concludes, “but now that we have some point, we thought, ‘Let’s try to a second shot doing this band— write a few songs and see how that spending all this time apart, we goes.’ We had low expectations; we realized we were lucky to be in a didn’t want to pressure ourselves band together, to tour the world, to or anything. Instead of doing a have a couple of beers with my bros crowdfunding thing or whatever, we and make music. I guess we’re all in decided to play three shows, three our mid 30s now, and we realized festivals, in 2015 that essentially that we’re all musicians and we funded everything including can’t live without it. That’s why the music videos. Every single Beast is coming out, it’s as simple penny we made from those 2015 as that.” shows we reinvested in the band.”

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“Somewhere along the way, the

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST DAVID RUSSELL AND GUITARIST RON KRETSCH BY NICHOLAS SENIOR MURDEREDMAN also finds the band honing in on a more carefully crafted sound. “When we first got together, we wrote and released a ton of music in a huge burst, conspicuously kitchen-sinking all our influences,” Kretsch says. “In keeping with the desire to keep things simpler and stay highly productive, a lot of that early material was accordingly raw, but as that initial burst started winding down, we seemed to begin expressing a collective will towards more clarity and grandeur in our heaviness.

Songwriting became more deliberate, and when we stopped being in such a hurry to produce, we created more spacious music.”

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THE MUFFS I

t took a dinner party hosted by a former band member to bring The Muffs back together, but since the 2014 release of their comeback record, Whoop Dee Doo, the band show no signs of slowing down.

“Our old drummer, Jim Laspesa, started having dinner parties, and the theme of one of the dinner parties was The Muffs,” says Kim Shattuck, singer and guitarist for the Los Angeles based pop punk band. “It was Jim, his boyfriend, me, my boyfriend/husband [bassist] Ronnie [Barnett] and his girlfriend, and [drummer] Roy [McDonald] and his wife. Everyone was asking, ‘What are you up to?’ I had been writing and demoing songs, but I hadn’t told the guys, and so, that was big news to them.”

After that they found out she had been writing music again, McDonald and Shattuck got on the phone and talked for hours to start plotting the band’s next move after their nearly decade long hiatus.

The end result was the critic and fan lauded Whoop Dee Do and the rerelease of the band’s first two

FATES WARNING O

ver the past three decades, few bands in the American progressive metal scene have had the impact and resolve of Connecticut’s Fates Warning. As sonic explorers go, they are basically the genre’s Hugh Glass. Well, minus the whole… bear ordeal.

Through their years of fearless exploration in the world of heavy metal, the band have seen many incarnations, but the one constant through it all has been fearless leader, Jim Matheos. Though his main role in the band is as a guitarist, he is also their main composer, a role he has held for years both out of choice and necessity. “It’s actually been the same for a long time for me and the way I work, which is by myself,” he says. “Back in the old days, it would be working on a 4-track and bringing it to rehearsal. These days, we all live really far apart—we all live in different states and [vocalist] Ray [Alder] is actually in a different country now—so it’s all done digitally through email.”

.

While Fates Warning have made

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records by Omnivore Recordings.

The latest rerelease, Blonder and Blonder, came out on May 27 and includes seven bonus tracks, five of which had yet to be released.

“We still play a lot of these songs live, but I went back and listened to the masters and realized, ‘This is a good album,’” Shattuck says about the band’s sophomore effort.

“I was struck by, ‘Wow, we did a solid album,’ because I’m a really picky, picky person, and I think at the time that we did it, I wished we would have had louder bass and kick drum. But, back then, I was thinking, ‘More guitars, more me!’ as the self-centered 30-somethig that I was. But it still came out really good. When I was hearing the demos again, I was thinking, ‘Why did we reject these songs?’”

Originally released in 1995, Blonder and Blonder was put together by what amounted to a new band, with Shattuck and Barnett the only remaining original members.

Guitarist Melanie Vammen left after the first record, as did Laspesa, who was replaced by MacDonald.

Pared down to a power trio, they played a little louder and a little faster. The record was produced by the band along with Rob Cavallo,

a name for themselves as a prog-powerhouse, they are also not limited by a specific genre or sound when setting their course for a new record. “[Our sound develops] mostly organically, especially in the beginning when there’s a real blank canvas to start with and I don’t have an idea where to start,” Matheos explains. “It’s just a question of getting started, and once you get that first song or two done, it kind of starts to present the direction to you and you maybe guide it in that direction. I don’t start off with a map of what I want to do. We just wanted to make songs that were interesting and hopefully people would like; that’s really the only guideline.”

Fortunately for fans, the band’s newest album, Theories of Flight— out July 1 via Century Media partner, InsideOut Music—is every bit as adventurous, heavy, and gorgeous as they’ve come to expect.

The album’s incredible sound can obviously be credited to Fates Warning’s astonishing musicianship, but it is also due to Matheos’ decision to take up the mantle as producer. “It is definitely an added stress having that extra work to do,

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN SNODGRASS

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST KIM SHATTUCK BY JOHN B. MOORE and the album’s title, that can be credited to Courtney Love. “I used to bleach my hair a little bit, little stripes here and there, and as anyone who has dark hair knows, you just do it more and more. So, I put more and more blonde in my hair,” Shattuck recalls. “We went to Seattle for some show, and we walk through this tight hallway and there’s Courtney Love against the wall, holding court. I’m squeezing by, and she sees me and sees my blonde hair and immediately thinks I’m copying her. Forget Marilyn Monroe, forget Jean Harlow, in her mind, she started the blonde hair.

So she goes, ‘Oh, is that blonde hair

I see? It’s just blonder and blonder.’”

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST JI and to make sure everyone’s doing what I want them to do for lack of a better phrase,” he explains. “So, it is a lot more work, but in the end, I find the stress involved with it is less than the stress involved with me hiring somebody else. And just the way I work, I would probably be looking over their shoulder all the time, second-guessing everything, and not being able to sleep at night because things aren’t being done the way I want them done.”

M MATHEOS BY BRANDON RINGO form of two shows featuring the entire reunited lineup playing the album all the way through. “It was pretty weird, actually,” Matheos admits. “Although we’re all friends and we still talk and occasionally see each other, that particular lineup, we hadn’t played together in about 30 years. We actually rehearsed in the same place where we used to rehearse back in the day, so it was extra weird for us to be in the same location where we wrote some of those songs 30 years ago and now [be] practicing them to play for fans in Europe 30 years later. There’s just no way that we would have imagined that record would have the life that it’s had.”

In addition to treating fans to a spectacular new record, the band have also paid special tribute to the 30th anniversary of their magnum opus, Awaken the Guardian, in the

Barnett was with her at the time and turned to his bandmate to say, “We have to call the album Blonder and Blonder.” And so they did, the title beating out other contenders like All Things Must Pass Gas and Let It Bea Arthur.

The Muffs have already started working on some songs that will eventually find their way onto a new album, but for now, they are prepping for a U.S. tour this summer that will bring them to the East Coast in July and back to the West Coast in August.

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..

BLUES PILLS B lues Pills take the listener back to the early days of hard rock by merging heavy electric blues and psychedelic rock, topped off with the powerhouse vocals of Elin Larsson to form a sound that is timeless and classic. Their self-titled debut full-length—which came out on Nuclear Blast two years ago after a string of well received EPs and singles—impressed critics and fans alike. Now, they are back with a new album, Lady in Gold, due on Aug. 5, also through Nuclear Blast.

Listeners can expect a few new wrinkles in their sound. “Lady in Gold is different from the previous album because we have grown a lot as a band,” bassist Zack Anderson says. “The sound of the band is evolving because we are discovering new music all the time and getting inspired by new things. We didn’t want to make it too similar to the first album either, because that would be boring for the audience and for ourselves. When we made the first album, we were mostly

GRAVE DESECRATOR

F

rom the splintering depths of dark madness and haunting visions, Rio de Janeiro’s longstanding death/ black metal act, Grave Desecrator, purvey the eternal dimensional void that lies in between worlds with a blasting and mutated strength. Their music is from the grave, from the spectral infinite, and from distant lights, weaving dark forms of power and rejuvenation. Nearly two decades old, the band have forged yet another brooding masterpiece of unholy power. Dust to Lust—out July 1 on Season Of Mist—is a record that grows mightier with each relentless track. It’s a testament to the precision and mysticism of this cult Brazilian band.

“I think Dust to Lust is our first step towards a personal perception from each of us, regarding subjective, abstract, and mundane aspects,” bassist Élson “El” Necrogoat muses.

“I’m happy when listeners can frame our sound with a mystical touch and not hold it with a necessarily tangible

listening to blues, rock, and psychedelic music. Lately, we’ve been listening to a lot of soul, so I think that comes out in our album.”

In addition, the band—which also includes guitarist Dorian Sorriaux and drummer André Kvarnström— draw their lyrics from a very personal place. Though, they find inspiration elsewhere too. “The lyrical themes are a mixture. Some are stories about ourselves or the people close to us, things that have happened to us or we have experienced in the last couple years,” Anderson says. “Others are just made-up stories. The song ‘Little Boy Preacher,’ for example, is a story about a boy messiah who the whole world is blindly following. I think when we were recording the song, we saw a YouTube video of a boy preacher in Africa who was claiming to perform miracles, and we just made the song about that. Sometimes, inspiration comes from the most random places.”

Once again, Blues Pills collaborated with artist Marijke Koger-Dunham—who has worked with such legendary bands as Cream and a little known four piece from Liv-

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST ZACK ANDERSON BY THOMAS PIZZOLA erpool known as The Beatles—for the gorgeously psychedelic album artwork.

ago, but we just thought it looked beautiful and fit the music of the album.”

For Anderson, this was a no-brainer. “The reason we chose to work with her again is simply because we love her artwork. She has an amazing style. We really like the style of ‘60s psychedelic artwork, and this is one she actually did some time in the ‘60s,” Anderson says. “It was originally black and white, and we just had her add color to it. The cover wasn’t made to directly reflect the album’s themes, obviously, since it was made almost 50 years

Despite the band’s burgeoning popularity, like fellow labelmates, Grand Magus, they have yet to play North America. Anderson believes this will happen soon. “There are no plans set in stone, but we are definitely hoping to make it over there with our new album,” he says.

“There have already been a few missed opportunities which didn’t work out with our schedule last year, but I think we will definitely make it this time.”

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component. Maybe the atmosphere in Dust to Lust represents what’s around us in our reality and its secrecy, as well as its obscure and violent essence.

We absolutely embrace the intrinsic cruelty within our reach.”

Grave Desecrator make serious and momentous music: stuff that shapes far-reaching objectives. The band hold fast to an old-school assault in the vein of early Slayer, early Morbid Angel, Possessed, and fellow Brazilian masters, Krisiun, and find shiny new eternities with each ferocious and illustrative old mannerism they forge.

Where some bands change their sound in ways that relate to a fluxing division of consumerism, Grave Desecrator find strength in a certain past and grow righteously with it. “In our previous albums, we expressed in a straight-to-the-face language, being enthusiasts of a savage and aggressive Brazilian-like image and visual, hence a fistful of masterless hate towards religious occidental aspects that upset us,” Necrogoat states. “However, it’s undeniable that we wanted to bring forth the blasphemous and insane old-school roots from the bands we worship, like Slayer, Sarcófago,

I N T E R V I E W W I T H B A S S I S T É L S O N “ E L” N E C R O G O AT B Y C H R I S T O P H E R J . H A R R I N G T O N and so on. This same inexorable attitude might be present in Dust to Lust as well, but maybe this same energy has been filtered in the veils of a spirituality that pulses below the ground we step on.”

Dust to Lust weaves through lush technicality and brutal assemblage, calling to the gods of the dark and the creative.

The guitar solos alone traverse inhuman wizardry and fantastical horizons. “I invite you specially to pay attention to the glorious solos of ‘A Witching Whore’ done by [guitarist] Black Sin And Damnation,” Necrogoat says. “He’s into hard work, man! His talent

has been blessed by the depths of Brazilian Hell, and you can realize it especially on this album.”

Almost 20 years into the void, Grave Desecrator continue to ruthlessly forge passionate blackened death metal fury. For the crew, it’s a path towards freedom, creation, and realness—and maybe some physical perks as well. “The will of not being part of such stupid and submissive world keeps us striving,” Necrogoat remarks. “And, I don’t know, maybe we need an excuse to have free drinks and smoke—a more interesting life! Praise the darkness! It’s our undeniable nature!”

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CANE HILL

“Let’s revamp this old murder of God thing,” says Cane Hill vocalist Elijah Witt. Witt is nonchalantly describing Cane Hill’s latest music video for the single “(The New) Jesus,” in which Witt portrays a coked-out Jesus crucified in a haunted funhouse. “The imagery is just supposed to shock you enough to where you think,” he remarks. “It matches the content of the song pretty well.”

“Shock and provoke” seems to be the motto of the New Orleans based numetalcore band’s debut full-length, Smile, out on July 15 through Rise Records. “The album in general, you could call it negative,” Witt explains. “I think it’s more just honest, a little bit narcissistic, and maybe insightful with all of the content that kind of points to all the shit that’s wrong with what’s going on in the world. As far as I can see it, socially, economically, religiously, like whatever you want to get into, it’s a stab at people who walk down the street just content with their lives. Like, smile because you have no fucking idea what’s

THE COLOR MORALE “I don’t scream anymore on the new record,” vocalist Garret Rapp says. “I think I maybe scream one line of one song on the entire album.”

For many fans of The Color Morale, this may come as a shock, since the post-hardcore band from Illinois have been characterized by combinations of soulful melodies and heavy vocals throughout their career. But have no fear: as their frontman steps down from unclean vocals, their guitarist Aaron Saunders steps up. “When you hear the record, you’re going to hear a new

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going on. You’re so ignorant to all the shit, and you’re happy because you don’t know.”

“I’m pissed off every fucking goddamn day,” Witt continues, which may have been the inspiration for Smile’s blastastic opening track, “MGGDA.” “My good goddamn, America,” Witt screams in exasperation, setting the emotional tone for the musical chaos that ensues on the rest of the record. “We tried to make sure we kept elements of the [selftitled] EP in it,” Witt says. “There’s still a bunch of heavy, but the EP was so diverse in itself that I feel it was easy to go in and write a record that was also super diverse.”

Reminiscent of earlier releases like “French 75” that balance out a heavy groove with more restrained experimental sounds, the tracks on Smile embrace variety, letting Cane Hill escape being pigeonholed into a particular niche. “‘St. Veronica’ and ‘Strange Candy,’ I’m super stoked to play [live],” Witt notes. “They just have this really, really trippy vibe that I don’t think people expect from us.”

Citing Marilyn Manson, Alice In Chains, and Pantera as major influences, Smile

vocalist,” Rapp continues. “I didn’t like screaming vocals myself; I didn’t like the way it sounded or felt. […] We’ve never really utilized [Aaron’s] material; he’s got a great voice and held each song.

I think his voice suited these songs perfectly, so he stepped up and took over the lead screamer role.”

The band’s fifth studio record, Desolate Divine, will be out Aug. 19 through Fearless Records, fully revealing the effects of the new vocal roles. The Color Morale spent four months writing this record and took a six month hiatus from touring to make sure they were as prepared as possible for their studio time with producer Dan Korneff. “We eventually went to the studio with 13 songs completed, and we narrowed it down to 11,” Rapp says. “That was the first time we’ve ever gone into a studio with a record done and written.”

Sonically, The Color Morale wanted to delve deeper into expanding their sound.

“We never make the same sound one record to the next,” Rapp explains. “We have a lot of straightforward, anthemic rock songs, and that’s kind of what we wanted to do with this record: focus less on technicality and focus more on really good songwriting. I have some of the best lyrics I’ve ever written on this record; the band has a lot of straightforward gigantic rock songs.” Rapp cites everyone from Sevendust to Brand New

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALYSON COLETTA

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ELIJAH WITT BY NATASHA VAN DUSER embarks on a crazy rampage down numetal and grunge’s memory lane. “I don’t think we’re trying to bring [that sound] back, I think we’re trying to revamp it in a better way,” Witt explains.

“It was amazing back then; it’s 2016, though, so it’s like everything’s got to be modernized, everything’s got to be changed. It’s what I tried to do with it.”

pretty low as it is,” he says. “So, if it goes down, like, fuck me! Right? But I mean, our touring schedule is ridiculous. I’m hoping that it continues. We couldn’t be more satisfied than we are right now, so as long as it keeps on going, keeps on chugging, with many, many, many, many more albums, I think we’ll be happy.”

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With Cane Hill slated to play Warped Tour all summer long, Witt hopes the only direction they can go is up. “We’re

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALYSON COLETTA

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST GARRET RAPP BY NATASHA VAN DUSER to Third Eye Blind as major influences on Desolate Divine. “We’ve been in a box, in a pigeonholed box as a scene band,” Rapp continues. “We’re getting older, we’re maturing, let’s try writing for something outside of our comfort zone.”

Fans got a glimpse into the upcoming record when the band revealed some lyrics from the first single, “Walls.”

Rapp explains, “That song is kind of the thesis of the record, of what the record’s about. Building walls to keep people out and feeling like you’re safer away from people, away from vulnerability.

I think it’s something we’ve all dealt with, something we all struggle with and go through. […] I like using personal experiences to influence or motivate somebody else in a positive way. I feel like that’s the secret of life I’ve

discovered: as long as you’re using your own personal tension or animosity to help someone through theirs, you’re doing something positive for yourself and for your surroundings.”

The Color Morale will debut their new songs at the beginning of the 2016 Vans Warped Tour. “We haven’t played a show in six months,” Rapp says. “I think that’s the longest our band has ever gone in its career without playing a show.” As Rapp is unsurprisingly itching to get back on the road, he knows the time his band took off to put forth their latest record was well worth the wait. “I think we’re about to open a lot of new doors,” he continues. “This is definitely the best album and most well written songs we’ve ever had as a band.”

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MOTHER FEATHER

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ANN COURTNEY BY BRANDON RINGO

O

ne thing that can’t be denied about Vans Warped Tour is how beneficial it still is, 21 years after its genesis, at helping bring a huge new audience to bands they may not normally discover. One band who will be basking in this glow immensely in 2016 are New York City’s Mother Feather, one of Metal Blade Records’ most brightly shining new acts.

While Metal Blade isn’t usually known for signing bands who label their music as “pop cock rock,” for both label founder Brian Slagel and Mother Feather vocalist Ann Courtney, it makes perfect sense. “We’re the outsiders on a metal label, which is metal [as fuck],” Courtney asserts. “It only seems unusual until you realize that Brian Slagel is simply an unabashed fan of good music.

He grew up on rock ‘n’ roll,

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and he’s a ‘motherfeather,’ there’s nothing subversive or mysterious about it.”

The signing makes even more sense upon learning about Slagel’s introduction to the band. “We owe a lot to chef and restaurateur Chris Santos, [owner of The Stanton Social and Beauty & Essex restaurants, and a judge on ‘Chopped’], who caught Brian’s eye with some enthusiastic tweets after one of his employees saw us live and turned him on to us,” Courtney explains.

“Brian and Chris are sincere fans of each other and they pay attention to each other’s tastes.”

Typically, the hardest thing about signing to a major label like Metal Blade is coming up with songs for a new record. Fortunately, Mother Feather had gotten a head start on that process. “We were already working on a third EP, [Living Breathing],

when Brian called us with the amazing opportunity to release our first two EPs, [Mother Feather and LIVE/ FUTURES], as a debut [selftitled] full-length album on Metal Blade,” Courtney says of the band’s May 13 release. “So, that changed our game plan a little, and it made a lot of sense to include those two tracks, [‘Natural Disaster’ and ‘The Power’].

They rounded out the album and gave something new to our fans who’ve been with us since the beginning. We wanted to give them some new music while the rest of the world catches up!”

pretty dull, but I understand the impulse. Mostly, I see it as an opportunity to describe the essence of the music we make and invite conversation.

When people hear that Mother Feather involves women making ‘cock rock,’ they stop and ask questions, which is exactly what I want.”

While their appearance at Warped this summer marks their first major tour, it represents something far more important for Courtney.

It is both the culmination of years of hard work and the jumping-off point for a wild new adventure. “Years ago, I had an intense and Courtney’s description of clear vision of Mother the band’s sound may seem Feather, building a show vague to some, but it is both I was incredibly proud of, incredibly accurate and and taking it on the road,” excellent bait for luring she recalls. “We have been prospective fans into her web. busting our asses for a really “People need comparisons long time, and now, it’s to make them feel safe, so happening. This is actually a that they can feel like they dream coming true.” immediately ‘get it,’” she says.

“Talking about genres can be

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST ALEX WADE

BY NATASHA VAN DUSER

t’s a Friday afternoon and guitarist Alex Wade has just finished a sound check in Greensboro, N.C., with his band, Whitechapel. It’s the final week of the Decade Of The Blade Tour, a celebration of the deathcore band’s 10 years together and a major precursor leading up to the release of their sixth studio album, Mark of the Blade. This highly anticipated record—out June 24 through Metal Blade Records—is sure to spark up some talk: it’s the first time that the band have ever utilized their own clean vocals. “It’s something that we had always talked about in the past,” Wade says. “We knew Phil [Bozeman] could sing. He sang in local bands in the past, but we just never really wrote the right kind of music for him to sing over. So, we wrote a couple tracks that we thought would be a good candidate for him to do that, letting him kind of demo out some of it, just a little bit, and it ended up sounding great.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACKI VITETTA

The track in question is titled “Bring Me Home,” a toned-back, old school metal track focused on a cleaner vocal, but highlighted by some really heavy backing growls. Think Layne Staley, “Sober” era Tool meets Slipknot. “I’m just really proud of what we were able to do on that track, and I can’t wait for people to hear it,” Wade notes.

The record overall embraces a far more dynamic sound than Whitechapel’s previous releases. “I think it kind of mixed a little more of that slower tempo groove into the songs, rather than having so much, like, blast beat, really fast tempo stuff,” Wade explains. “I think we’ve just grown as musicians overall and as people. With every album, I feel like we just get a little older and we get a little wiser and we learn things from the past record and we apply it to the new one.”

Bands tend to get a lot of flak when they evolve their sound, but Whitechapel are already prepared for the storm. “Swallow down that salt in your mouth / Because nobody gives a fuck what comes out,” Bozeman croaks on Mark of the Blade’s third track, “Elitist Ones,” a call against anyone who puts people down for what they do or like, especially in the metal world and digital age. “We set the bar for ourselves,” Wade says.

“We’re not concerned with what other bands are doing or what their sounds are like, we’re concerned with progressing as good as we can.”

However, Whitechapel’s loyalty to their fans has only grown stronger with their new record. “Mark of the Blade stands for our fan base,”

Wade remarks. “Whenever they get the saw blade [Whitechapel’s logo] tattooed on them, we call it the ‘mark of the blade.’ […] So, it’s kind of like creating a little community within our fan base with all these people that are marked by the blade. That song, ‘Mark of the Blade,’ is about how Phil has dedicated himself to this lifestyle, to being a career musician and all of that, and how he is marked by the blade. So, it’s kind of cool how we can tie the fans and the band all into one thing through a song and album.”

Bozeman’s dedication to his music extends past just being a frontman. “[Phil] actually wrote most of the song ‘Mark of the Blade’ on guitar,” Wade notes. “He used to play guitar in his old band in the past, and so, whenever he joined Whitechapel, he wasn’t shy to jump in and start playing some riffs here and there.”

Whitechapel are showing a new side to themselves. With a growing fan base, a new style added to their sound, and the classic rebellious attitude metalheads all know and love, Whitechapel can sit back and embrace their accomplishments as they hit up the 2016 Warped Tour all summer long.

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST KEVIN BIVONA AND VOCALIST AIMEE INTERRUPTER BY LOREN GREEN 26

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he Interrupters may be a young band, but as they release their second album, they’ve already had the chance to learn from legends.

Rancid’s Tim Armstrong produced the new Say It Out Loud—out on Hellcat Records since June 24—and the band have toured with Bad Religion, The English Beat, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and more. While touring with Rancid, The Interrupters served as Armstrong’s backing band for his Tim Timebomb project.

Serious time on the road has helped the band hone their chops and define the direction of their second record, while touring with the greats has taught them about the industry. “The most important lesson we’ve learned from them is how to treat people. The way they treat and respect their fans, the people they work with, and each other,” says guitarist Kevin Bivona, the eldest of three brothers who, along with Aimee Interrupter on vocals, form the band. “All those people have longevity and that is why,” he says.

On Say It Out Loud, that balance between the music and social awareness defines its tone. The lyrics are personal but universal, based on real life and told in a broader social context. The title, to Bivona, is direct. “It’s what we felt like we were doing on this album,” he says. It’s also open to

interpretation, he adds, whether that’s a call to action or a taking a critical look in the mirror.

With a Two Tone ska-punk sound, The Interrupters’ heart is their twin brother rhythm section of bassist Justin and drummer Jesse, while Kevin’s guitar and an occasional horn fill in the hooks. Two Tone is ultimately the core, as in “Phantom City”—which features guest vocals from Armstrong—or “The Valley,” both putting the band’s California roots on display. They mix it up in songs like “Media Sensation Recall” and “On a Turntable,” drawing from classic melodic punk that integrates harmony layers akin to the big punk bands of the mid to late 1990s. “By My Side” opens the record with a statement, blending genres with a catchy confidence that carries through all 14 songs.

Ska music may be upbeat, but the lyrics present a less celebratory message.

Not cynical or pessimistic, Interrupter says, but still addressing heavier issues— albeit with a dance beat. “We have lyrics that point out things we find unjust, but at the same time, we celebrate the things we love,” she says. Near the record’s end is “Jenny Drinks,” a song about alcohol abuse and addiction that’s direct and a downer, but as Interrupter sings “I’ve never been so frustrated with humanity,” a pick-up beat keeps the song from taking an emotional dovetail in tandem with

the lyrics. “Good Things,” a song about seeking the positive even when things are low, sums up The Interrupters’ lyrical tone well.

For the band, Hellcat Records is a natural fit. “Rancid has always been a huge influence,” Interrupter reflects on her experiences working with a musical hero.

Even though they’ve established a working relationship, she’s still in awe at their collaborations. The Armstrong connection dates all the way back to 2005, when Bivona auditioned and earned a gig as The Transplants’ keyboard player on a Warped Tour run.

Eleven years later, The Interrupters embark on their own Warped Tour experience and they’re excited to be on a bill that includes influential third wave ska bands Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. “We all grew up going to the Warped Tour,” Bivona reflects. It’s their first major U.S. touring festival, and it’s a chance to showcase how the band have grown from their first album to their second. “We developed our live show so much and took all of that into consideration when we went into the studio,” Bivona says.

“We know what works live and what is fun to play live.” It will be on display across the country this summer.

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6 BRAND NEW SONGS FROM FAT’S PROTO-PUNKS TOYGUITAR! 9/2/16

fatwreck.com

NEW ALBUM FULL OF ELECTRIC/ACOUSTIC, SOULFUL BARROOM ANTHEMS! 7/29/16

ON TOUR AUGUST 2016!

COMING SOON!

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN SNODGRASS

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t was only days after speaking with Masked Intruder vocalist and guitarist, Intruder Blue, about the perfect heist when the world’s largest diamond was “discovered” and valued at 70 million dollars. Coincidence? Well, probably, but a girl can dream: two starcrossed (alleged) criminals on the run, crushing Burger King and swiping beers from cry-baby emo bands. It almost seems too good to be true, mostly because it is.

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In a perfectly chaotic world, no scheming soul could think of a better way to spend the rest of eternity—lifting jewels and slamming Whoppers until collapse—but Masked In-

truder are more than some dudes avoiding lockup.

The gang of misfits have a literally killer catalog and released their new EP, Love and Other Crimes, via Pure Noise Records on July 8.

While they might be touring all summer long, including all dates on Warped Tour, it didn’t stop Blue from taking some time out to plan the perfect crime… or a really weird first date.

For instance, the band’s new single, “Take What I Want,” references obvious kleptomaniacal intent, but what would Blue steal if he could have anything in the world? Calling out cliché films and cartoons, he re-

plies, “One really huge diamond, the kind of one they keep on a pretty pillow in a glass case in a fancy museum.”

“In a way, the perfect [crime] is, like, you do a little job at the liquor store. It’s a nice place to rob, because you can get some money, but they got all this liquor,” Blue explains. “That cuts out the middleman in between taking the money to buy some liquor.”

Totally. Imagining the gang hiding out behind the police station, knocking a few shots back, the thought of “something flame broiled” comes to mind. The liquor store was just the beginning. “It could be a good first date if you were on a date with someone who liked to rob a Burger King, which is rare,” Blue says. Why not drop by and grab a few

Whoppers while the pigs are out scouting Dunkin’ Donuts? “Yeah, that’s true, because police love donuts,” Blue says. “That’s true, people think that’s a stereotype, but it’s also true.”

At this point, Love and Other Crimes would be playing in the getaway car—er, portable speaker. The EP is a doo-wop-y punk rock ode to all things criminal, including stealing hearts.

Full of fast guitar breaks and layered melodies similar to their 2012 self-titled full-length, the EP holds its own in the band’s catalog. “Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt,” “Still Always on My Mind,” and “First Star Tonight” hold heavy pop punk chords packed with more than enough swoony gang vocals to make the cops bust moves, not criminals.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAYLA SURICO

S

witching genres is probably the toughest move to make for a band with a set fan base. Listeners will be pleasantly and abruptly surprised when they get a taste of Capsize’s new full-length album, A Reintroduction: The Essence of All That Surrounds Me, out on July 22 through Equal Vision Records. Gone are the days of a strict hardcore sound, and instead, a throwback to early 2000s post-hardcore comes crashing in. “The title kind of explains the situation,” vocalist Daniel Wand says, “like, it is a literal reintroduction of the band based on where I’m coming from and based on essentially what’s leading me to this point.”

Capsize broke into the scene in late 2014 with their debut record, The Angst in My Veins, a straight, abrasive hardcore album from start to finish. “When we were recording the last record, I kind of had a very, very specific box of a vision of what I wanted to create,” Wand says. “With this new record, I kind of just let it be its own thing, and I wasn’t overbearing or over-specific on the recording process.

The songs were just flowing as they went. […] So, I didn’t really have as set in stone, clear of a vision of how I wanted it to sound, which I think allowed it to have a bigger personality as a record than our last one does.”

The most notable change in the Capsize sound is the vocal style Wand employs.

While screaming, unclean

vocals are still present on the record, they work more as highlights than focal points, allowing Wand to play with his range. “This new record is way more like us kind of being ourselves,” he says. “The thing is, I would have loved to have sang the way I sing [on the new record] on the first record, but it just wasn’t appropriate to the music.”

Wand credits bands like The Used and Underoath as his biggest inspirations for adding clean vocals to A Reintroduction… “The type of vocals that are on the new record and that type of post-hardcore is what inspired me to get into bands and start pursuing music in general,” he notes. “With this new record, since we had already done everything that we wanted to do in the hardcore world, […] we still had this platform to create and share music.

I thought this was the most appropriate time to get more in touch with why I

was even able to be inter- it by having this one wellested in music in the first known person on it, but we place.” just got our good friends that genuinely support the The new side of Capsize band, as opposed to hiring a came forth with the release big name or something like of the single, “XX (Sew My that. I think that that’s way Eyes).” “I feel like that song cooler.” comes out just so strong,” Wand explains. “The best Within the last year, Capway I have to talk about it size spent nearly 200 days is like the absolute perfect playing shows in support of transition between where their prior record and plan we’re coming from and to keep up the same pace for where we’re headed. I feel A Reintroduction…, beginlike it’s sonically that half- ning with a coveted debut way point; I guess that’s why on the Vans Warped Tour. “I it’s my favorite.” feel like the miles on our van is what has prepared us for While Capsize are definite- Warped,” Wand says. “When ly introducing a softer side, we first started grinding they are still upping the ante it out, I saw a certain level with heavy vocals with guest that, at the time, was like a features from Counter- ceiling I’d be content with, parts’ Brendan Murphy on but now that we’ve kind of the track “Tear Me Apart” naturally surpassed that, it’s and Being As An Ocean’s hard for me to say.”

Tyler Ross on “The Same Pain.” Wand adds, “I know “Pretty much every cool that there’s bands that try thing that happens from to contact people that they now on is something to be feel could bring attention to grateful for,” he concludes. their record or help promote “It’s not a goal.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALYSON COLETTA

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or most bands, the name of an album comes towards the end of the recording process, but the title for Vanna’s latest record, All Hell—out on July 8 through Pure Noise Records—was set in stone from the get-go. “We had that title when we started writing the record,” Muise says.

“So, that title was in our minds every step of the way. Every guitar riff, everything, that title was in our minds the whole time. And I think it couldn’t be more perfect.”

Going into the studio, the pressure was on for the metalcore punk band as their prior record, 2014’s Void, was their most successful to date.

“I think one of the biggest things for me was I didn’t want to write the same lyrics over again,” Muise explains.

“Void was almost a confession, in a way, of all the issues and tribulations and things that I went through to kind of get to where I was back two years ago in my life. […] All Hell is

sort of my proclamation that I’m proud of all the mistakes I’ve made. I’m proud of all the triumphs I’ve accomplished. […] So, for me, All Hell is the hell that I’ve gone through to get to where I am today.”

From angsty “stop listening to what they say” tracks like “Mutter” to tales of the grim reaper of toxic friendships like “Pretty Grim,” Vanna took some interesting risks lyrically, switching up the subject matter as well as the overall tone of the record. “The song I really, really love, and it means a lot to me, is a song called ‘Flower,’” Muise says. “It’s a song about a person in your life that makes you want to be a better person.”

Muise cites his wife as well as his mother as inspirations for the track. “It’s the first ‘love song’ that I’ve ever written in my entire life, and it’s funny, because you’d expect it to be all pretty and beautiful—and it is at times—but it’s still a pretty heavy song and it’s still pretty self-deprecating in a way.”

Stylistically, Vanna wanted to further develop their sound and song structures to reflect the evolutionary motif attributed to the album. “The opening track on the record is called ‘Paranoia Euphoria,’” Muise says. “It just hits so hard right out of the gate, and we recorded that song knowing it was going to be an opener for the record. […] It’s cool, because on that song, it’s the first time you get to hear me and [guitarist and clean vocalist] Joel [Pastuszak] sing back and forth with each other. We tried a lot of new stuff and that song is kind of a good representation of that.”

While many tracks uphold a sonic theme of hard-hitting, hellish chaos, there is a softer, more melodic side to the record—with tracks like “Lead Balloon” and “Candle Limbs”— that Vanna have just started to tap into. “I feel like this record is a cool progression to a direction that’s going to be more welcoming to more people,” Muise explains. “I think that

people tend to get too caught up in what you’re supposed to do in the music industry, and what you’re supposed to do is whatever you want to do.

It’s music; it’s art. There are no parameters, there are no rules for anything. It’s just do whatever you want to do. I think the future is whatever you want it to be.”

Vanna will be debuting All Hell on the road all summer long for the Vans Warped Tour.

“I feel like, with this record, we just kind of step it up in every way, shape, and form,” Muise summarizes. “I’m really just trying to have fun with it, because ultimately, at the end of the day, we all have to remember that this is fun. The reason why we’re all making music is because it makes us happy. So, I want to do stuff that makes me happy, that makes everyone else happy, so I think this year’s Warped Tour, we’re going to be stepping it up.”

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slander sit somewhere between metalcore and heavy rock with a hint of rap influence thrown in for good measure. Versatile and aggressive, while still having their lighter moments, the band sound almost like a blend of Bring Me The Horizon, Deftones, and Glassjaw.

The Greenville, S.C., group are set to release their sophomore album, Power Under Control, on Aug. 5 through Victory Records. Vocalist and sole founding member Mikey Carvajal explains that the new release will be a concept album that follows a character who is impacted in many of the same ways the band were during the writing process. “Sometimes, we can feel these crazy feelings, but [the album is about] the idea of having it under control and just learning how to have self-control,” Carvajal elaborates. “We just feel like we’ve looked at the world a lot lately, and we see a lot of people living without power under control. Instead, they just think they’re supposed to release all of their energy at once or do all this crazy stuff with their lives, whether it be drugs or whatever. They feel like they have this youth that lives inside of them, and

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they don’t realize you can do more with that youth if you learn how to harness it.”

pretty cool seeing somebody who’s so legendary still being punk rock through this technology.”

Islander recorded Power Under Control with producer Cameron Webb—who has previously worked on records for Motörhead and Alkaline Trio, as well as Islander’s first album, Violence & Destruction—at NRG Studios in Hollywood. Between the two albums, Islander saw a complete shift in their lineup with the addition of former members of Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, and ForeverAtLast, but have come back stronger and more diverse than ever.

Although there is a hint of rap-rock influence on Power Under Control, Islander are far from being a throwback band. They have previously received praise from nu-metal alumni such as Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D., Brian “Head” Welch of Korn—with whom the band are close friends— and Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf, which has led to Islander being deemed a nu-metal group by many in the press. Carvajal clarifies that he and the rest of his bandmates never strived for a nu-metal sound and see the label as inaccurate.

“We’ve never been or claimed that,” he says.

“I think a lot of times, the press gets ahold of an idea that they want to run with or, you know, if somebody at the label has an idea of what something might

The new album will also feature Bad Brains singer H.R., who previously worked with the group on their Pains EP. “This time around, we knew we wanted to get H.R. on this specific track, and he hasn’t been feeling too well health-wise, so we knew that it was going to be pretty hard to get him to just fly out for a day,” Carvajal says. “We had done stuff with him on the phone before, so this time, we actually put him on the phone next to the microphone in the studio. After, we just FaceTimed him and thanked him.

It was a pretty cool thing! It was

sound like to pitch to people—but, you know, I’ve never owned a Rage Against The Machine album, I’ve only owned two Deftones albums. I just think a lot more of that was put on us than maybe we ever wanted.

Those bands are fantastic; being compared to them in any breath is amazing, but we just never saw ourselves like that.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATHERINE PATCHEL

PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA REED

L

ast year at The FEST 14, Mike Ya n n i c h — b e t t e r known as Mikey Erg—took the small, wooden stage at Civic Media Center in Gainesville, Fla., and sang sad songs to a crowd of sweaty yet overjoyed punks.

Mid set, the founder of the annual music festival, Tony Weinbender, presented Erg with a cake to celebrate his 10th year playing the weekendlong event. At the time, most people were unaware that his former band, The Ergs!, had planned to reunite to help mark the occasion. An array of circumstances, however, led to its postponement.

Now, for the first time since 2010, The Ergs! have announced an official reunion show, which will take place at FEST 15. To the delight of punks across the Garden State, the trio warmed up for the big gig last month when they played on “The Chris Gethard Show”—Gethard being the happiest Jersey punk of them all. Most people in attendance were there to see the band who expertly wrote brokenhearted love songs for all the lonelyhearts to sing along to. The excitement was overwhelming. “When you’re planning on these things, you kind of wonder if anybody even cares,” Erg admits. “Once we announced it, it seemed big off the bat. It was nice to know people were excited about it.

My favorite part about playing is seeing the audience go off, and that was just really fun to experience again.”

Fans of The Ergs! have more to celebrate than a beautiful, albeit brief, reunion: Erg’s long-awaited debut solo album, Tentative Decisions, is due out June 24 via Don Giovanni Records. Although he mastered the singing drummer shtick

with The Ergs!, he has traded his sticks for a guitar this go around, ceding drum duties to his Worriers bandmate, Lou Hanman, and bass to the producer of the record, Jeff Rosenstock.

the process only to release an album that didn’t feel entirely organic and worthy of attaching his name to. Ironically, it took a mighty and forceful push from his friend Anika Pyle— formerly of Chumped, now with Katie Ellen—to bring about new music for what became Tentative Decisions.

What began as a weekly songwriting pact between Erg and Pyle quickly transformed into the album he had wanted to write, but struggled to for years.

Although he is still writing heartbreak songs, the mere fact that this record exists is, in and of itself, hopeful. “I was telling [Anika] I didn’t think I had it anymore. I just hadn’t written anything in a long time, and I just assumed I was done,” Erg says. “And then, she was like, ‘No, fuck that. Send me a song a week. I don’t care what it is. This is bullshit.’ That was pretty much the genesis of the record. I ended up with all of these songs, put them in a list, made demos of them, put them in order, and then realized I had a record that totally felt right.”

Between The Ergs! and Erg’s solo record stood a severe case of writer’s block and crippling self-doubt. At times, there were small, hopeful glimpses of triumph, as Erg released a handful of singles throughout the years. Aside from those tracks, modest melodies and scraps of songs all found themselves unfinished, deemed not good enough for the boy in everyone else’s band but his own. Erg’s waning confidence manifested at the height of The Ergs! success and it seemed to patronize him long after the band’s breakup. “When we made [2004’s] dorkrockcorkrod, we were playing shows to nobody and it didn’t matter. I was just writing songs to write songs. But then, it became obvious that I was writing songs for an album that people were going to listen to and it freaked me out,” he confesses.

The record’s title seems fitting considering the long and selfWith more listeners comes destructive journey Erg has more critics; in an attempt to taken to reach this endpoint. divert the humbling remarks from reviewers, Erg checked out as a songwriter—for nearly eight years. “I definitely was not taking the criticism well,” he explains. “Every time I read a bad review, I was like, ‘That’s it. I quit music for a day.’

Eventually, you kind of get over that. I mean, nobody is ever completely over that, it’s still weird to hear someone criticize something you love, but you just kind of let it roll off your back.”

Fans and friends alike approached Erg during his songwriting intermission and begged him for a solo record, but he didn’t want to force

Nothing about the writing and recording process felt certain on his part, with lots of secondguessing of how songs should sound and where they should go and what they should be called.

Regardless of all that, Tentative Decisions is the album that has made Erg not-so-tentative anymore. It is the album that has helped him realized he no longer needs to hold back. “I already have a bunch of songs for another record. The dam is broken. I just needed to get over that hump,” he says. “I always had self-doubts: ‘Do I know how to do this?’ and ‘Are these songs good?’ I taught myself it doesn’t matter if the songs are good, you just have to put them out there.”

For now, Erg plans to focus on supporting a record eight years in the making. Following a short two weeks traveling around the East Coast and Midwest, he will head out west to tour with The Falcon and his band The Copyrights. You can catch him doing his solo stint before he reunites with The Ergs! at The FEST this October. “Comme Si” what those Jersey punks were longing for all this time.

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alking over the phone from their home base of Wilmington, N.C., on the night of their unofficial Fifteen Years On Earth Tourr kickoff show, there’s a palpable sense of excitement in Valient Thorr vocalist Valient Himself ’s voice.

ly before Our Own Masters was released, but Valient Thorr now have a new home with Napalm Records, and are slated to release their seventh album, Old Salt, July 29. The band are rightly stoked to get it into the earholes of the band’s “Thorriors” and hit the road this summer for shows with Hammer Fight and PEARS. “It’s been too long,” Valient Himself says of getting back into the fight with a renewed energy and a revamped lineup featuring longtime lead guitarist Eidan Thorr, guitarist Daimos Thorr, bassist Storm Thorr, and drummer Iggy Thorr. Valient Himself says the new lineup “got real tight” during their U.S. and European tours before heading into Palm Reader Studios in Wilmington, calling it “one of the best experiences we’ve had.”

This excitement stands in stark juxtaposition to the misery he’s endured since the interstellar stoner rock band released Our Own Masters in 2013.

They came from Venus to save Earth with rock ‘n’ roll, but got thrown for a loop instead. “Sometimes, life twists on you,” Valient Himself admits solemnly. “The reason we slowed down is because life shit happens. My old man, my Earth-father, passed away, and just a lot of crazy stuff happened. I don’t know how to explain it. I never had anything like that happen to me.”

“There’s a lot of stuff in there,” he says of Old Salt.

Volcom Records—through “I thought [Our Own Maswhich the band released ters] was our best record, six albums—folded short- but it didn’t get a lot of

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press, it didn’t get a lot of push, and this one is even better than that one.

It’s hard to be a band that keeps continually topping themselves and learning all the time. Obviously, it’s been three years, so we’ve learned something, and those experiences are reflected in the songs. I hope our fans dig what we did.”

When discussing “The Trudge,” one of 11 songs on Old Salt, and the struggle of making a band work, the singer says the passing of David Bowie and Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister— which happened during vocal tracking—impacted him deeply. “The last song on the record, ‘Jealous Gods,’ is a little bit of a nod to [Bowie],” Valient Himself says. “I’m just glad we stuck at it.

I understand why people can’t do it anymore. Life gets ahold of you, and it will tie you down. I’m super proud of [the band], and I’m gonna keep doin’ it until I kick over onstage, like Lemmy said.”

Valient Himself channels an onstage energy with influences ranging from Jim Morrison to the MC5 to James Brown in one bearded, sweaty, beer-bellied-and-beautiful spirit. For the singer and his band, old soul is a beautiful thing. “One Earthman that was really smart, a mentor of mine, told me, ‘Just go out every day and make beautiful things,’ so that when you’re dead and gone, maybe people can look back, and maybe it helped them out, you know? All you can try to do is help other people, and if we can do that through music, then that’s good.”

“In certain times, I’m like, ‘Why do I do this?’” Valient Himself admits. “The only reason I do anything is to make my friends and family happy. And I think it does. And as long as it does, I’ll keep doing it.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAYLA SURICO

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ISSUE 26 NEW NOISE

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S

ning experiments, getting down and dirty with the science process. But, as is the life of a corporate worker, Aukerman got “promoted” and soon found himself behind a computer instead of a microscope, managing the lab instead of working in it. While he used to look at the very cells of plants, he was now looking at a blinking screen, all In the early ‘80s, punk bands day, every day. had devolved into basically two camps: the Germs-influenced, “My job became a source of nihilistic self-destructors and frustration,” Aukerman admits. the Crass-influenced uber-po- “Corporate life turned out not litico punks. And then along to suit me. DuPont underwent came the Descendents, fronted a merger with Dow, and they

by Aukerman, a peevish, shy, took away my main project. skinny, bespectacled N-E-R-D. They said, ‘You have to go work Except, when he got on the mic, on this other thing that you may he completely lost it, spazzing not have any interest in.’ I refer out over girls, food, and coffee to that as my banishment to Siover aggressive but snappy 90 beria.” second cuts. In a way, Aukerman had found a way to fit in Not too long after that, in Deby purposefully not fitting in. cember 2015, Aukerman and Never before had punk seen a the 400 people in his division poindexter leading the charge, were told that layoffs were and the fact is, it changed the coming. He says, “It was, ‘Merry Christmas, you’re getting laid very face of the genre. off!’ But, truthfully, I breathed a Despite the impact of the band, sigh of relief. I was very close to by the time the Descendents hitting the ejector button mybegan recording their debut self.” On Aukerman’s last day, LP, Aukerman had to choose in an act so loaded with symbetween being a full-time bolism that you could not make punker and his other passion: it up, he handed in his badge, science. Of course, the choice went to his car, drove to the went down in history in the airport, and picked up drumform of 1982’s Milo Goes to Col- mer Bill Stevenson—his oldest lege. Aukerman put his singing friend—to go work on the first career on pause and went to new Descendents album in 12 UCSD, where he earned his un- years. dergrad in Biology. From there, he got his masters and doctor- Just as Aukerman set aside ate. The Descendents reformed punk to become a scientist, he here and there, but for the most has now chosen to set aside part, biology was Aukerman’s science in favor of punk, and main gig. After doing research all of his pent up anger and at U Penn, he eventually ac- annoyance made it onto Hycepted a job a DuPont in 2001… percaffium Spazzinate, which will be released July 29 via and, at first, things were cool.

Epitaph Records. “At times, “I was working on Arabidopsis, I wanted to tear my hair out, which isn’t a crop plant, but it’s so music became my outlet,” related to cabbage,” Aukerman Aukerman says. “‘Testosterone’ says. “What we were doing was is about my job environment. trying to discover genes that In the corporate world, I just could confer positive traits, couldn’t wrap my brain around such as resistance to drought the whole macho-ness of it all. I had to compete with the and better nutrients.” ‘type A’ kind of guys, and I just Aukerman was doing what he couldn’t—I wouldn’t—get into loved: working in the lab, run- that.” ome 33 years into his career, Milo Aukerman realized that he wasn’t having any fun. His current predicament traced all the way back to 1982, when he made, perhaps, the most famous “career decision” in punk rock.

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In another attempt to deal with his frustration, Aukerman built a recording bunker in the basement of his house so he could really freak out. “Because I didn’t have to record the vocals in a short period of time, I had freedom and could really get aggressive,” he explains. “It didn’t matter if my voice got shot, because I could let it heal and go at it again—with more abandon.”

Aukerman’s state of mind comes through on the new LP. It’s fast. It’s aggressive.

It’s ready to blast apart at the seams. Yet, there are also several tracks that, instead of being pissed-off rockers, are reflective pieces about his relationship with his longest-running bandmate, Stevenson. Just as Hypercaffium Spazzinate signals Aukerman overcoming his battle with his job, it signals Stevenson winning the battle for his life. A few years prior to the album’s recording, Stevenson was at death’s door. A pulmonary embolism caused a tumor to grow in the drummer’s head, which caused him to balloon up to 450 pounds and stop caring about the things in his life, and literally started to push the eyes out of his head.

Stevenson has since recovered, but at the time of the illness, things were very iffy.

“When Bill had his tumor, we reconnected,” Aukerman says.

“We hadn’t seen each other in a while. I was making a career in science and he was making a career in music. Bill is my best friend. We went to high school together. I feel bad that it took him almost dying for us to reconnect, but we picked right up where we left off. We have such a deep understanding of each other that it’s a bond that will never be broken. The last song on the album, ‘Beyond the Music,’ is about our friendship and how our friendship is as strong as you can imagine—because it’s through music. It’s all about the music.”

Now that he’s been released from the cage of his old job, reconnected with his best friend, and has once again assumed the mantle of “Nerd-Punk King,” Aukerman must feel like he’s on top of the world…

“I—I don’t know,” Aukerman says, hesitantly. “I always feel imposter syndrome wherever I go, in both punk and science.

No matter how successful I am, I go, ‘Am I holding my own? Do I stand up next to other people?

Are we equals?’ With this record, I sang above my register, to try to rise to the challenge and not rest on my laurels. In the end, maybe it will help me feel like not such an imposter.

I’m improving, but I never feel as though I’ve fully been assimilated into anything. Maybe that’s a healthy thing.”

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hen Useless ID vocalist and bassist Yotam Ben Horin and lead guitarist Ishay Berger talk about punk rock, it becomes clear how important it is to them. Since forming in 1994, the Israeli punk band have been around the world and developed an engrossing love of the music. The band—Ben Horin, Berger, rhythm guitarist Guy Carmel, and drummer Gideon Berger—released their eighth studio album, State Is Burning, July 1 via their old friends at Fat Wreck Chords, and played a release show in Tel Aviv the night prior, before embarking on a European tour with Lagwagon and Versus The World.

Coming out of their own isolated, volatile neck of the Middle East woods, Useless ID again went into The Blasting Room in Boulder, Colo., and came out with a back-to-theirroots “love letter to punk rock” and an extended middle finger to a corrupt, seemingly hopeless country: State Is Burning. “I don’t think we would’ve been able to write this album had I not experienced

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what I have the previous year,” Ben Horin admits of the 15 song effort. “Seeing the world from a new perspective all of a sudden brought out these tunes and gave us the angle we were all looking for with this new record.”

ous” situation. Berger describes the band as “a very anti-religion and anti-tradition group of people.” He continues, “Our relationship with Israel as a state and particularly in the cultural sense is that the more we disconnect from it, the better it is for us. It always Twenty years is a long time, has been like that.” and Berger admits that, looking back, 1996 proved Berger says the guys idento be a turning point for tify, culturally, with a city Israel, and his band. “I still that stole their hearts back remember the ‘96 elections in ‘96: San Francisco. “I alas the day that we all lost ways thought that we are hope,” the guitarist recalls more hungry for traveling of Israel’s version of Bush and mingling than a lot of vs. Gore 2000. The elec- other bands may be, betion, in which Benjamin cause Israel is such a small Netanyahu defeated Shi- and, in many ways, isolated mon Peres by less than one place,” he explains. “We left percent, was preceded by Israel for the West Coast the November ’95 assassi- in 1996, and those months nation of Prime Minister we stayed two blocks from Yitzhak Rabin by a right Gilman Street had changed wing Jewish national- our lives forever.” ist who opposed the Oslo peace process. “But, even Fast forward 20 years, and before then, I think that as Useless ID are as stoked a band, we never felt like ‘a as ever to be making muband from Israel,’ but more sic. Not all of the songs on like ‘a band from punk,’” the new record are bleak.

Useless ID released their Berger adds.

We Don’t Want the AirUseless ID recently pre- waves EP back in May, miered the single, “Land and the title track—which of Idiocracy,” the opening also appears on the fulltrack on State Is Burn- length—finds the band ing, painting a picture of a paying homage to “the one “bleak, boxed, and danger- true royalty,” the Ramones,

asserting “rock ‘n’ roll has no ending.” The track features a guest appearance

by Teenage Bottlerocket’s Ray Carlisle, paying tribute to his twin brother and bandmate, drummer Brandon Carlisle, whose untimely death late last year shocked and saddened punk fans worldwide. The song reaches its climax at the end with the screamed question: “Hey Brandon, are you hangin’ with the Ramones?”

“Having Ray come to the studio to sing for our song was powerful and emotional,” Berger says. “I can only hope that our song succeeded to show the big love we have for him, Brandon, and their band.”

Ben Horin, describing 2016 as “one of the craziest years for me,” adds, “Gearing up for the release of State Is Burning, it feels as if one thing is leading into another and everything is benefiting from that.”

Berger sums it up even more optimistically, saying, “2016 is about to be real fun for the Useless ID family.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID ROSEN

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ISSUE 26 NEW NOISE

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST LUKE PATE BY SEAN GONZALEZ

FRAMEWORKS

“It seems like the ‘American Dream’ now is you are given a celebrity status that makes you above somebody else instead of working for it,” Frameworks vocalist Luke Pate comments. It’s this mindset that fueled the strenuous screams on “The New Narcissistic American Dream,” the closing track of their sophomore LP, Smother. The Gainesville, Fla., act have been on one hell of a grind since their formation in 2011, capturing the eye of Deathwish Inc., who release Smother on July 8.

Pate and company would rather be on the road grinding through long tours than waiting to be noticed.

This mentality of constantly striving to be more diligent helped narrow the band’s focus while writing the record.

“With Smother, we really, really put ourselves into it,” Pate states, adding that they let the songs sit for months before recording them. In turn, this allowed for Frameworks to hone in on creating an album full of enough sonic tension to rip your ears off while it plays. “We just all go at it,” Pate says, adding that “[the songs] are all the same genre, but the different tones coming out can be aggressive, some are more melodic, and some are more poppier.”

This tonal awareness contributes to Frameworks’ storming of the hardcore scene with their blend of chaos, which

borrows from multiple genres while bouncing between them throughout Smother.

“Fear of Missing Out” opens the record with a mesmerizing drum beat that harnesses listeners into Pate’s visceral assault. It is the equivalent of watching your anxiety take the seat next to you on the bus. The guitars ricochet punk flavored riffs off each other, twisting around the rhythmic pulse. The song is about the displacement between family life and the road, with Pate having missed a few key moments while touring the country. “It’s conflicting, because I feel wrong not being there for them—my family that is—but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong by not being there,” Pate muses. This conflict is just one of the many issues Frameworks tackled while entangling themselves in writing.

Smother voices the struggle of continuing to breathe creativity while fighting with oneself internally. This left Pate’s mind brooding,

articulating the uneasiness of an inner monologue on a mission to torment the singer.

“Tinnitus” is a perfect example of the battles with oneself that emanate from Smother with a cathartic vigor. On the meaning of the song, Pate opens up, saying, “It seems like there is always this background static, like this tinnitus that keeps me from fully committing to something. There’s always this voice in the back of my head telling me that I’m doing something incorrectly, or that it is almost pointless to do it.” Pate confesses that even describing that the voice can wear out the feeling of passion at times. For such a volatile display of emotion, it’s easy to relate to that vulnerability.

With all of the sonic suspense spewing out of Framework’s songwriting, there are songs that glimmer where others lie in gloom. “Purge” sounds like a beam of hope. The guitar leads dance around Pate’s fluttering mind, grasping onto melodies and letting them soar behind the tormented howls.

It’s a contrast that further showcases Frameworks’ ability to shine in the music industry.

Once they have your attention, it’s difficult to turn away.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAYLA SURICO

7/12

San Diego/CA

Brick By Brick

7/28

Montreal/QC

Petit Campus

7/13

Los Angeles/CA

Whisky A Go Go

7/29

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Gramercy Theater

7/14

San Francisco/CA

DNA Lounge

7/31

Boston/MA

ONCE Ballroom

7/16

Portland/OR

Hawthorne Theater

8/1

Philadelphia/PA

Voltage Lounge

7/17

Bellingham/WA

The Shakedown

8/2

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Soundstage

7/18

Seattle/WA

The Crocodile

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Masquerade

7/19

Vancouver/BC

Rickshaw Theater

8/5

Austin/TX

Dirty Dog Bar

7/21

Edmonton/AB

Starlight Room

8/6

San Antonio/TX

The Rock Box

7/22

Calgary/AB

Dickens

8/7

Ft. Worth/TX

Rail Club

7/24

Minneapolis/MN

Cabooze

8/8

Kansas City/MO

Riot Room

7/25

Chicago/IL

Reggie’s

8/10

Denver/CO

Bluebird

7/26

Cleveland/OH

Agora Ballroom

8/11

Albuquerque/NM

Launchpad

7/27

Toronto/ON

Mod Club

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Joe’s Grotto

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C

arnifex aren’t the same band since they came back from a much-needed hiatus in 2013. Theirs is a story of perseverance in many forms: professionally, musically, and personally. They’ve even managed to break away from the deathcore pack and develop a unique and powerful sound. With their upcoming sixth record, Slow Death, due out via Nuclear Blast Records on Aug. 5, they’ve become the fine wine of deathcore: aging gracefully and developing new and enticing flavors along the way. “Now that we’ve been able to move past [early career struggles] and are allowed these freedoms of being able to run with our ideas and set our schedules, we’re able to take the time we need to take to make a record,” vocalist Scott Ian Lewis explains, continuing, “Since we’ve taken that break, you’ve seen not just a 2.0 version of the band musically, but a 2.0 of the band success-wise, and the freedom has certainly helped.”

Lewis is upfront that Carnifex have come a long way musically. “None of us are trained musicians,” he admits. “We were just kids who wanted to make the same type of noise. We’ve just learned over time how best to convey what we wanted hear. There was no shortcut for us, but we’re all better at our instruments now. I go back to some of our earlier records and cringe, but we were really young. That’s why these new records sound different.

We’re different, as musicians and as people.”

In light of that, Carnifex had lofty goals in mind for this record. “The vision, for me, was to write something that is really going to be a benchmark, not just in our career, but also be kind of what [2007 debut] Dead in My Arms was,” Lewis says. “It is a different album that sort of kicked off a different scene in the bands you saw coming up.

You’re now seeing this darker, black

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metal element infused in the deathcore sound. We’re really trying to push this element into our sound, with the stage show and the band’s aesthetic.” To Carnifex’s credit, Slow Death is a fantastically potent mixture of melodic, symphonic, technical, and truly dark blackened death metal.

The album deals with Lewis’ own story of perseverance. “The album was a way for me to have a conversation with myself out loud and really put out those things for people that feel like they have a hard time connecting to, or that [they think] they’re the only one going through that,” he explains. “When I was younger, I was fairly isolated; I didn’t really fit into any clique.

Metal and goth weren’t cool. For me, listening to music was often my only connection. Hopefully, people can realize they aren’t the only one having those dark feelings. I hope that by listening, they can realize that they have someone to commiserate with.”

Slow Death builds on both the musical and lyrical darkness of 2014’s Die Without Hope. “To me, there is a cohesiveness between this and Die Without Hope,” Lewis offers. “People can see the arc between the two albums. They are Part I and Part II, not in a literal sense, but it’s a continuation from where we left off. On Die Without Hope, a lot of the discussion that I was having was ‘What happens if you die?’ On Slow Death, it was about what happens after death.”

Lewis is in a better place now, though, right? He laughs, “You know, I am, I think. I have a song that addresses that, ‘Countess of the Crescent Moon’ which is essentially a love song to the idea of death. There’s something about that [which is] familiar, even though it’s dark and sad. There’s something about the devil we know that makes you feel OK—you’re used to it.”

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“The everyon guy et Dave Mus hinks is an andro taine is sentient id with a comment YouTube s for an A section .I. prised yo I’m surud know th idn’t at.”

W

hile it may not be as easily located on a globe as Sweden, Finland, or Germany, the small country of Creepsylvania is still one of the most important exporters of metal in the world.

While the country is most widely known for birthing the horror-thrash cannibals in Ghoul… Actually, Ghoul is the only band left in the country ever since their now-infamous “Break Up or Be Eaten

by Ghoul” campaign.

Unfortunately, Creepsylvanians aren’t the only ones terrorized by these monsters. With the release of Dungeon Bastards on July 29, Ghoul will also be creeping across American shores.

Though America already has its hands full with its own torturous psychopaths, none have perfected the art quite

like Ghoul. “We’ve found the best and most effective form of torture is simply making people listen to our finished albums,” vocalist and guitarist Digestor admits. “Side effects include dizziness, vomiting, nausea, shin splints, cystic acne, hurt feelings, brain freeze, brain thaw, ashy elbows, shrinky dinks, water chestnuts, and motion blur.”

For normal American bands, recording an album is a fairly easy process of surrounding themselves with pictures torn out of nudie mags, firing up Pro Tools, and pounding away until someone tells them to quit. According to Digestor, however, Ghoul’s studio environment is far more detailed. “[It consists of ] the usual,” he shrugs, “screaming captives, rotting chunks of strange meat, festering casks of rotgut, and a ton of empty yogurt containers that [drummer] Fermenter just

won’t throw away for some reason. He says he’s going to use them, but does he? No.” In addition to their extremely unusual surroundings and repugnant tourism habits, one of the things that separates Ghoul from their thrash contemporaries is their ability to actually play thrash metal. This isn’t necessarily surprising, though, thanks to their super-secret weapon: “We’ve had the real Dave Mustaine chained to the floor in the catacombs for the last 15 years, and we’ve been slowing eating him [and] getting him to teach us riffs,” Digestor explains. “The guy everyone thinks is Dave Mustaine is an android with a sentient YouTube comments section for an A.I. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”

filth-spewing thrash metal and their voracious appetite for attendees of their “performances,” Ghoul’s efforts have proved fruitless thus far. Therefore, like many of their American political heroes, they have devised a distraction for their fans in the form of a board game being released alongside their new album. “The game’s designer, Dr. Sewage, was vacationing in Creepsylvania when he stumbled upon us digging up a grave,” Digestor recalls.

“Of course, we immediately took him hostage. As we were about to cut his head off, he blurted out that he was a graphic designer and could help us out with our new layout if we didn’t kill him.

Graphic designers being hard to come by in Creepsylvania, we agreed and let him live. It took him months to make the game. Thinking back on it, he might have just been trying to buy time while he planned his escape, Iron Man style. That would actually explain how he escaped in a jury-rigged powered armor suit.”

Finally, if Ghoul’s torturous live show, horrifying new album, and mind-altering board game don’t grant them the American destruction they so desperately crave, they can always fall back on their biggest ace in the hole, a potential Donald Trump presidency. “We want your country to turn into a nuclear fire-scorched hellscape, and a Trump presidency seems like the best way to do it,” Digestor says. “We just didn’t think you guys would be stuThough they’ve put forth a pid enough to go for it!” valiant effort to take over the States through their

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he legendary Swedish multi-instrumentalist Dan Swanö—of Edge Of Sanity, Bloodbath, and Nightingale fame— isn’t one to keep quiet for too long, which is why his latest progressive death metal project with guitarist and bassist Ragnar Widerberg was welcomed with open arms by Swanö’s fans and metalheads alike.

While their 2013 debut, The Inheritance, was a relatively easy creative experience, their excellent follow-up, The Northern Sanctuary—due out via Century Media on July 22—happened earlier than expected, yet was certainly a labor of love. That level of time and care is clear throughout this truly fantastic concept album.

Swanö expands, “I must say that I am a bit surprised how easy it was to get the material together for this one. I was really inspired by the reactions to the [debut], and the songs just kept writing themselves. First, I tried to write an album for another project, but Witherscape kinds of songs just kept popping up like weeds through the

asphalt, so I switched my focus to Witherscape, and it was an awesome experience!”

The Northern Sanctuary doubles down on the ‘70s rock and prog influences, with the songs feeling even more melodic and playful this time around. “The first album was put together in a very different way, and it was the actual ‘old school’ process of rehearsing, playing the stuff in the rehearsal room, and really feeling the song that made the whole Witherscape thing happen in the first place,” Swanö says. “But once all the material for the first album was written, I realized that it wasn’t necessarily the best way for me to write, since some of the passages were indeed awesome to play, but then, listening to them was not really as entertaining, so lots of stuff was cut out. I knew pretty early on that the writing for another full album would have to be in the way that I normally write, meaning that I do demos that sound like albums, only with made-up lyrics and programmed drums, and let the songs live like that for a while until we replace the stuff in-

strument by instrument, using the demos as a template. Since the first one was a success, and I didn’t want this one to be the same, I just wrote the album I wanted to hear. Sometimes, I didn’t even think about writing it for Witherscape; I just wrote and, at the end of the day, the stuff just sounded 100 percent once Widerberg put his magic on it.”

Allowing the songs to ferment throughout the process gave them more vibrancy this time around, but Swanö mentions that recording was a bit of a headache. “The drums were OK. I recorded myself here at the studio, and it’s always fun to bang the shit out of [those] drums!” he recalls. “The vocals were actually quite painful, since the vocal style for both the most aggressive clean and the growls demands a lot of power from me, and I ended up with some insane headaches. I had to spread out the vocal takes for months and ended up delaying the album for, like, half a year. But it had to be the best it could be, and Century Media felt the same without any problems. They

INTERVIEW WITH DAN SWANÖ BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

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let me go on with perfecting the album. Such a great label!”

The album continues the horror-fueled tales of the house from The Inheritance, a new variant of the classic haunted house tomes. What is Swanö’s favorite haunted house tale? “I have a thing for evil houses, and I don’t know how many of those kind of movies I have seen in the last years, but there is just something special about old houses combined with spirits and stuff,” he says. “One movie that comes to mind that kind of took me by surprise was ‘The Others.’

That is the kind of twist I would have loved to come up with!”

Swanö has a busy summer planned, spending his time in his recording studio mixing some very highly anticipated metal records. Though live shows aren’t officially planned yet for Witherscape, they are certainly in the works. In the meantime, listeners will be more than satisfied with this wonderful concept record, stuffed with equal portions of grand ‘70s prog rock and menacing melodeath.

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n June 3, Re l a p se Records reintroduced the underground to Richmond, Va.’s bastard sons of doom, Cough. The new LP, Still They Pray, halts a six year absence of fulllength material. Heavily lauded for their sinister sound and reveling in Satanic, occult, and cannabis related imagery, Cough’s menacing low tones and slow tempo songs perfect the doom metal clichés. Still They Pray was produced by Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn, and the result is a captivating bevvy of madness and riffs.

Vocalist and bassist Parker Chandler seems to see their absence as a rational reaction to life as an underground musician. “As long as we’re not making a living off of music, there’s no reason for us to release material on a strict schedule,” he says. “Art should take time. That being said, we’re kind of impressed with ourselves over how long this one took.” In this current climate of independent music, bands are often expected to release a barrage of news and material to the public, but Chandler simply offer, “We’ve been busy with other projects and focus-

ing on our personal lives.”

Still They Pray is an onslaught of swirling feedback, thick riffs, and churning rhythms that violate the listener’s eardrums. While the album is a continuation of their signature sound, Oborn’s influence is tangible. “Jus has been around studios for the better part of his life, watching the recording

beyond what’s typical- care for it, but it appears ly expected of an ‘engi- to be part of the deal, kind neer.’” of like interviews, no offense,” Chandler says, That recording is the typ- elaborating on his frusical RVA style of down trations with the current and dirty, which cap- state of the industry. “I tured a spirit and sound think it contributes to the that solidifies Cough’s idea that music is disposDIY roots. Chandler in- able. Instead of dropping dulges, “It wasn’t exactly the needle on a piece of a studio. We tracked and art, we premier songs mixed over the course of out of context, prefaced two weeks in September by a paid author’s paragraph and riddled with meaningless, misdirected buzzwords. It seems to be important to the people who can actually make money off of music though.”

“WE’VE ALL BEEN MISERABLE, AND WE WILL ALL BE MISERABLE AGAIN.” process evolve,” Chandler explains. “He’s picked up some things along the way. His suggestions were often minor changes that had a noted impact.” The other recording influence and practitioner was fellow Richmond doomsmith, Garrett Morris, of Windhand.

Cough momentarily broke their silence in 2013 by releasing a split 12” with the band entitled Reflection of the Negative. “We go back about eight years,” Chandler says. “He has recorded us a couple times. He always goes

of 2015 in a garage outside of Richmond. That approach kept it as raw and natural as possible.

We recorded all the basic tracks live, straight to a 1” tape machine, without the aid of Logic [or] Pro Tools or any of that stuff.”

That vibe is palpable in the waves of disturbing sounds that plod through the speakers.

Even before Still They Pray dropped, Cough peppered certain metal websites with singles and SoundCloud links, releasing three tracks in total before the album was birthed. “We don’t

That attitude is amplified on Still They Pray, as a salient pessimism permeates the dismal downpour of the album. The vocals are a constant wail of desperation and longing.

Pain and suffering propel strained yearnings across a weaving of smoking guitar leads and bassline bombs. Low-end thunder and pounding drums copulate with clouds of atmosphere and dizzying tones. The intense and staggering music comes from turmoil. “The gratifying part is that music based on the shittiest parts of our reality can speak to strangers from all walks of life,” Chandler says. “We’ve all been miserable, and we will all be miserable again.”

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Interview with vocalist James “Human Furnace” Bulloch by James Alvarez

RINGWORM

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ingworm have been cranking out consistently great and pulverizing metallic hardcore bangers for years on end. The band reached a creative and commercial highpoint with their 2014 opus, Hammer of the Witch, and plan to capitalize on the gnarly momentum they’ve amassed by unleashing their latest album, Snake Church, on July 29 via the mighty Relapse Records. It’s another dose of hyper aggressive punk meets metal meets cobra venom cocktail, meant incite mosh pits and neck injuries around the globe.

“Most bands will tell you that every new record is their ‘best one yet’ and, in some cases, that might be true,” vocalist The Human Furnace says. “I always approach every new record with the frame of mind that this is ‘another Ringworm record.’ I like to make sure that every record has its own identity, so I try not to even consider anything we’ve done in the past and just make the best record we can right now. I pour every bit of emotion and energy into each one.

For me, there’s abso-

RINGWORM'S SPLIT 7"S

Ringworm / Early Graves Creator-Destructor Early Graves—last known for their 2012 bruiser, Red Horse— come with one original track, “Revenge,” and a Celtic Frost cover, “In the Crypt of Rays,” while Cleveland’s bastard sons, Ringworm, ride their continued wave of brutal releases, contributing one original as well, “Innocent Blood,” and a cover of the Motörhead anthem, “Iron Fist.” This Creator-Destructor 7” is being released one time only on black vinyl in a run of 500, with cool Middle Ages’ etching style artwork.

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lutely no other way it could or should be done. And if that fire, passion or drive isn’t there, it’s time to stop making records.”

Impassioned would be a good way to describe Snake Church— that, or frenzied. The album continues where their previous skull-crusher left off, but showcases even tighter performances and more finesse in the otherwise bludgeoning presentation.

“Hammer of the Witch was very well received and opened a lot of new ears to what it is that we do,” Human Furnace reveals.

“With Snake Church, if there was anything we brought to it from Hammer, it was the razor sharp viciousness that we were able to achieve by spending the majority of the last two years on the road touring. That attitude has always been there, but you can see and hear the difference in bands when they spend a lot of time on the road honing their craft.”

veals. “Breakdowns are great, and we have some, that’s for sure, but a lot of bands’ songs are built off and around the breakdown. Hell, there’s a lot of bands these days that every one of their songs are just one long breakdown. What fun is that?

If your whole song is one long breakdown, it ruins the actual breakdown,” he laughs. “Personally, I feel that a great riff is what makes a really great song.

It’s the meat of a song. It beats your ass and leads you, willingly, right into the breakdown that fucks you up even more.”

Speaking of fucked up, Snake Church features beautifully eerie cover art of an eyeless woman adorned with crows and snakes, illustrated by Human Furnace himself. This striking album art represents the dark subject matter Ringworm have been wrestling with forever. “I write about the human condition,” Human Furnace explains.

After giving Snake Church a “How I see the world, how I see spin, anyone with ears will myself, and how I see the peoagree that the fellas in Ring- ple in it. From religion, suiworm honed their craft big cide, depression, morality, love, time. The opening title track loss—the list can go on and on. and the galloping “Brotherhood The title track has obvious reliof the Midnight Son” launch gious overtones, which is noththe album into the strato- ing new for us. Religion has had sphere. The sinister twang of a stranglehold on humanity “Shades of Blue” is a highlight since someone figured out that and stands as one of Human they can control people with it Furnace’s personal favor- and make money at the same ites. “It’s a little different than time. I, personally, have things someone might expect from that I believe in ‘religiously,’ but us,” he says fondly. “Slow, pum- Snake Church takes a look at meling, good groove, it’s the the darker side of that coin. The sleeper on the record for sure.” control and the ongoing battle that many of us wage against it.”

“Ringworm has always been about the riff,” the vocalist re-

.....

BY HUTCH

Ringworm / Brain Tentacles A389 Recordings Ringworm continue to blast out blasphemous tracks on this A389 split 7”, with cover art referencing Venom’s logo to coincide with their cover of “Poison.” They also offer a new track, “Destroy or Create.” Brain Tentacles—the new jazz-metal supergroup—spit out two original tracks, at about a minute each, and add their interpretation of Celtic Frost’s “Innocence and Wrath.” Their artwork recalls a Celtic Frost back patch adorning a denim jacket. The gem is the $25 package option, which includes colored vinyl, four card layout design, two mirrors—like all your metal heroes from the ‘80s carnival days—and two embroidered patches featuring the cover’s tribute logo designs. Hail Satan!

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARDINALS

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INTERVIEW WITH LEAD VOCALIST GREG ATTONITO BY GABI CHEPURNY

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he Bouncing Souls have a new album, Simplicity—out July 29 via Rise Records— that calls back to the band’s early days; a shot of nostalgia that will easily transport longtime fans to the birth of the band and, simultaneously, make younger fans wish they could have been there when it all started.

Water Music and Against Me! fame, who replaced Michael McDermott in 2013—bassist Bryan Kienlen, and guitarist Pete Steinkopf. Each of the members has a long and storied history with punk music, whether with The Bouncing Souls or not, and has seen the genre and its participants change over time. Attonito says, “It still means the same thing to me, but I honestly Lead vocalist Greg Attonito, who have no idea what it means for has been with the band from the outside world now. It has the start, says, “I think we have always been a spiritual thing been battling with overthinking for me—a fight to find and in our songwriting for the past express true individuality that few records. When we started breaks barriers in minds and writing for this record, we had the world.” some conversations about how we wrote songs when we were The Bouncing Souls and in high school. It was all pretty their peers came up in a new spontaneous. We didn’t really wave of punk rock; the genre know what a bridge was, so we was carving out a new name never thought we needed one. for itself within the music When we started writing for industry, and eventually, Simplicity, we did our best to grew to become part of the recapture that headspace. We mainstream. Now, many fans made kind of a rule that if we look to the OG creators of punk got bored while we were playing for tunes that are still raw, still a song to just end it. I think that say something, and are still— really helped. That idea ended quite frankly—good. However, up being wrapped into the title, some musicians, like Attonito, Simplicity, which came near can’t fully decide on the issue. the end of the whole process. “It’s hard to say,” he admits. “I Having [new drummer] George personally go back and forth [Rebelo] involved in the writing on that. Some days, I feel like process really changed up the new music is a wasteland of mix in a good way too. It has regurgitated styles. On other been a pleasure writing with days, I hear something that George.” moves me, and I’m annoyed at myself for being a curmudgeon.

The band currently consists I’m sorry to say, though, those of Attonito, Rebelo—of Hot days are few and far between.

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How can you top Minor Threat, the Replacements, and Billy Bragg, just to name a few? I mean, those are tough acts to follow. The new generations are going to create for each other, and that’s all they need to do. I’ll just say I’m really thankful I grew up when I did,” the vocalist maintains.

While the time period that a band comes up almost always has an effect on their sound, location often has a lot to do with it too. Growing up in and creating music in the state of New Jersey tends to yield a type of music that can’t really be found elsewhere. Attonito says, “It definitely affected us, but it’s hard to say exactly how. Geographically we had access to so many different kinds of bands, so that had a huge impact. We grew up very close to the thriving music scenes of the ‘80s and ‘90s in Manhattan and the legendary club, City Gardens, in Trenton.

Bruce Springsteen’s hometown was pretty close to ours, so, as a teenager, his songs hit close to home for me literally.

As a teenager, I could follow a real life story arc in his music from where he went to high school through to becoming a successful musician. I could look around me and see he came from where I came from, so that was a great influence that was very personal.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAITLYN LAUREL MCGANN

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN SNODGRASS

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t first listen, Get Dead’s Honesty Lives Elsewhere feels fast, rough, and loud. Lead singer Sam King ’s voice transports listeners through the 12 track album—out July 29 on Fat Wreck Chords— with his signature scratchy, raspy voice. “It means a bunch of different things to us,” King says of the album’s title. “But the meat and potatoes of it is basically: it seems that the world we live in presently is full of shit.”

“Top to bottom—from television telling you what’s good to the so-called ‘real’ punk rock squatter kids trying to police the scene by pushing politics,” he continues. “To each [his] own and all that, but we got into this music shit to escape being told what to wear or how to act. Be good to other people; shut the fuck up and have a good time. That’s honesty to us, and on a day-to-day basis, it seems to be elsewhere.”

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King ’s crooning is comforting, as it often sounds like he is caught amid casual thoughts, reasons, and indifferences. That attitude transfers over to the five piece Bay Area band’s album cover, which features a sketch of a girl with sleepy, lifeless eyes.

She appears tough, but the razor she holds closely to her relaxed, agape mouth offers a sheer sense of apathy and exhaustion.

That harsh reality takes full effect on “Dyin’ is Thirsty Work.”

King sings, “Dying is thirsty work when you’re caught in the undertow of the West Coast / It’s more violent than you think / Blood-stained concrete will always remind me of defeat / Get up; we all fall down.” Bassist Tim Mehew, drummer Scott Powell, and guitarists Mike McGuire and Moki coolly cloak King ’s vocals and cries: “Tooth to the nail / Living hand to mouth ‘til we find the solid ground.” That hardship, that struggle is real.

The tight-knit group—who have been together since 2007—have understood that, especially as they’ve grown individually and collectively. When asked how they have changed throughout the years, King lists, “Music got better, hangovers got a lot worse.

Kids were born. People died.

It’s a constant elevator. Ups and downs.”

When it comes to Honesty Lives Elsewhere—Get Dead’s fourth full-length album—it is everyday experiences like those that drove them to make something that keeps them and their listeners interested.

“We don’t write music just to put something out for the sake of putting something out or to try to stay current,” King says.

“Every song is about something that has directly affected us.

Sometimes, a lot of shit happens and we can write three albums in a year, and sometimes, it takes longer. If we have material we

think people can relate to and it’s worth somebody spending time out of their life to listen to it, then we will put it down and put it out.”

Get Dead tailored their album with care. It feels like threaded conversations with close friends inside a dimly lit neighborhood bar, and being drunk in rationale is often masked by shots of warm whiskey and overpowered by the sound of clinking glasses.

A boisterous laugh envelops the room, but it’s quickly followed by a soft, worried sigh. Whatever it is, you’ll just have to “Keep Rowing, Stupid.”

For King, he and his bandmates kept Honesty Lives Elsewhere simple, trying “not to overthink it. Try to be as honest as possible and not make an album our friends are gonna diss on.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEN CRAY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/BASSIST ALEX LEVINE

BY JOHN B. MOORE

S

tanding out in the Brooklyn music scene in 2016 is not an easy thing to do. There’s practically a band for every joke made about hipsters in Williamsburg. But somehow, over the past decade, The So So Glos have managed to get fans and critics to pay attention to them in one of the world’s most crowded music scenes.

“We’ve always done our own thing and haven’t tried to fit in with musical trends,” says Alex Levine, vocalist and bassist for the band. “Being from here, we’ve seen the city transform dramatically

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in a way that it’s almost un- guitar lines. For us, it’s less recognizable compared to about production tricks and the place in which we grew more about the songs.” up.”

That raw energy and attitude One of the ways the band is all over their latest record, have succeeded in standing Kamikaze, out since May 20 out is that they’ve held onto on Votive Music. The new althat old-school Brooklyn bum is “harder,” says Levine, attitude and energy—think adding that common themes more “Taxi Driver” and throughout the songs include less mustache wax—which anxiety, overcoming internal comes out in their music. struggles, heartbreak, and “People misunderstand living with a chronic disease. that kind of direct attitude,” Levine says. “Within Even though the attitude the songwriting, there’s an has remained, the band have emphasis placed on word- changed a lot musically over play and lyrics and a lot of the past five albums. “Every time spent on interweaving record has a different feel,

and a different approach,” Levine explains. “They’re time capsules of where we were at that moment. I feel like we got to explore a lot of new things this time around.

There’s some bittersweet darkness. I snuck in a few singer-songwriter-y moments in there too.”

The band spent June touring alongside The Dirty Nil and Big Ups, but what’s next for The So So Glos? “It’s hard to predict the future,” Levine says. “Wherever we end up is exactly where we’ll be.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE CALIXTO

"L

ife, chaos, stuff ”: it’s a quick aside made by vocalist and guitarist Rachel Browne in the middle of a discussion about Field Mouse’s sophomore record—out via Topshelf Records on Aug. 5—but those three words sum up Episodic quite well.

For the most part, Episodic sounds like an upbeat, good time album, from the frenzied guitar riffs in opener, “The Mirror,” to the laidback and melodic “The Order of Things.” Lyrically though, it’s in a different ballpark. Broken relationships, illness, family issues—it’s all here. Browne agrees, “I think the new [album] is way more of a bummer if you were to sit down and read it, lyric-wise. […] In August [of 2015], which is kind of when we started writing most of the songs, my younger sister got diagnosed with breast cancer, and my entire family life and regular life got flipped on its head. She’s doing better now, but it was six months of everything being pretty awful.”

Several months later and Browne, who is the oldest of three—her

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other sister Zoë, plays guitar and synth in Field Mouse—still struggles when trying to explain her sister’s illness. “Not really understanding how something like that happens, and then having it happen to someone that young and that close to you, it’s pretty nuts,” she says.

Instead, she channeled her thoughts into songs. While the entire album is composed of Browne’s thoughts, opinions, and stories, the themes of some songs are easier to recognize than others.

In “Half-Life”—a song likely about her sister—Browne sings, “You are terrified but never complain,” before launching into a chorus in which she keeps repeating one line: “I’ve lived more lives than you.” In “The Order of Things,” Browne’s smooth voice belies the chaos and big changes happening in and around her life as she calmly sings, “In the order of things, where is my place?”

Other songs are murkier and open to interpretation, which was a conscious decision on Browne’s part.

“I tried to be a little more vague,” she says. “I definitely wrote some songs about particular events that I felt needed to be written about for me, which is the worst reason.

But some of them—this was also the first time I’ve done this, too—I did try to make stories out of, instead of just writing a straight song about an experience or a vague situational song that everyone can just kind of relate to. I tried to write a few more songs that could be enjoyed as, ‘This is a story of something that isn’t real, but it’s interesting, like, in the same sense that reading fiction is interesting.’”

On their debut, Hold Still Life, the band—which also includes guitarist Andrew Futral, bassist Saysha Heinzman, and drummer Tim McCoy—self-produced. This time around, they enlisted the help of Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart.

“I was just ready for someone else to come kind of put their ears and brain to it,” Browne explains. “It definitely made things go more smoothly. Having a schedule that affects someone else that’s an outside party is really helpful for me,

personally. I would say 80 percent of it was finished coming into the studio, and the rest we tinkered with a little bit. There were some things we slowly wrote while in the studio, like little parts that were just kind of missing. We tried to bring as much finished material as possible.”

Reinhart isn’t the only Hop Along connection on the album, as lead singer Frances Quinlan designed the cover art. It’s dark and chaotic and acts as a balance to the album’s title, a word that implies connected storylines and a continuous narrative. At least, that’s what Field Mouse want you to think— Episodic has a different meaning to the band. “The inside reason we named it that is because we, particularly me and Andrew who wrote it, watch a lot of TV, and especially use TV as a coping mechanism for tough times,” Browne says. When asked what she’s currently watching, she jokes that it would take “a whole different interview” to answer that, before naming off some of her favorites: “We definitely watch a lot of ‘Futurama,’ ‘Arrested Development,’ ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’ ‘Bob’s Burgers’ was in there for sure. I’m doing a ‘Sopranos’ re-watch right now, and it’s really helping my quality of life out a lot.”

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t makes sense that an album entitled Uncomfortable Skin traffics in tension.

San Francisco electronic duo All Your Sisters—comprised of vocalist and guitarist Jordan Morrison and bassist and keyboardist Mario Ruiz— revel in thematic and musical tension throughout their excellent sophomore LP, out via The Flenser on July 8. Uncomfortable Skin is the soundtrack to a lonely 4 a.m. dance party lit only with a strobe light. It’s a Technicolor beam, illuminating the darkness of the mind, taking sonic cues from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and contemporary ideas to create something altogether new and fascinating.

“It is anything that makes you feel uneasy,” Ruiz shares. “Religious views, sexuality, disease, love, these are all things that we sometimes don’t feel comfortable with. The overall tone and visceral lyrics play into that very well.”

Morrison expands, “This is just what’s in my head.

We’ve all seen and felt really uncomfortable things. This record has a lot to do with growing up, getting older, trying to live, all while feeling uncomfortable in your own skin. And maybe most of us are way beyond hope, but hope for what?” That tension permeates the music. “There was also an effort to maintain So, what exactly do the band a bit of discordant tension mean by uncomfortable skin? throughout the album,” Mor-

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rison continues. “That sound seemed to fit in with the lyric content as well. I like singing and using guitars that I can make interesting sounds with; then, Mario adds his bass and key loops. It helps with that discordant tension.”

It doesn’t hurt that All Your Sisters’ hometown is also rife with tension. Ruiz explains, “I think the current landscape of San Francisco and its animosity toward the large ‘tech boom’ has definitely helped us creatively. It’s been increasingly hard to survive, both mentally and financially, This discordant tension also in this city. I won’t sugarcoat plays into the band’s ability to the struggle as we watch allies be happy with their art. Ruiz [and] friends get pushed out of explains, “I am very confi- here and forced to move elsedent in [Uncomfortable Skin], where.” but perhaps only in the sense that it’s a great timestamp All Your Sisters will be takfor where we are right now ing this heady dance party on as a band. There’s always go- the road starting in August. ing to be more tinkering to be Dealing with the uncomforthad. I feel like we’ve only just able while hip-shaking sure cracked the surface of exper- sounds like it might release imentation we’d like to tackle some tension. It sounds surwithin ourselves.” prisingly fun too.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARYAM HASSAN

ALL PEOPLE INTERVIEW WITH GREG RODRIGUE, DANIEL RAY, ROBERT LANDRY, AND JOSH CAMPBELL

BY SEAN GONZALEZ

"

felt like no one was really listening to what we were trying to say,” Robert Landry, drummer for the New Orleans band All People, comments while reflecting on their new self-titled release.

For the quartet, All People— released May 20 on their own imprint, Community Records— is the amalgamation of all of their worthwhile influences.

“I don’t like saying that I grew up, I don’t like that phrase in terms of reflecting where I was in music,” Landry states, continuing, “the record finally became what we wanted.”

somber tone to “Balloon,” each note seeping through the guitars in a finale of emotional outpour. Daniel Ray—known as D-Ray by friends and family— is the mastermind behind the pulsing synths and vibrant horn section, finding a place to fit in once the song is already finished. “It’s about writing something that doesn’t step on someone’s toes or is not so chordal that’s already being covered,” he says. Engineer Ross Farbe helps bring out the sparkly synths and the shimmering bells, like a wind chime swaying in the breeze.

As a band, All People comb through audible influences that utilize a variety of instruments and sounds. Six different synthesizers bring a youthful charm to the record. At times, they swirl around the mix, adding a dynamic atmosphere on “Moonsteps,” but other times, they pack as much of a punch as the guitars, such as on “Start Again.” A trombone asserts itself in the fight for melody as well, bringing a

While listening to the record, it is easy to hear that the rhythm section—usually bass and drums—is actually the drums and guitar. Guitarist Josh Campbell—one of Landry’s bandmates in New Lands—is a new addition to All People and receives nothing but praise from the band members for helping redefine their sound.

“Rob and I would lock up in rhythm while writing,” he explains. “There are a lot of

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times Rob’s beats are closer to my guitar riffs and I will try to accent Rob. It is just how he and I have played together for the past five years.”

For the bass playing, Greg R o d r i g u e utilizes the instrument as the hammer for the foundation, creating the necessary durability for each tune with pounding, lowend assaults.

“Moonsteps” is notable for the surging bass roaring throughout the song, allowing for the rest of the band to blend an

atmosphere around it. For All People, “New Rain” offers the best sonic explanation of their sound. Campbell and D-Ray bounce melodies between each other, with Rodrigue finding space to bellow in between while Landry’s beat extends a natural calm for one twinkly dream-pop instrumental.

In a way, All People help personify the city of New Orleans with a soundscape as colorful and vibrant as the city itself. There’s never a dull moment in either the 27 minute record or the ‘round-the-clock nightlife. The city has always been able to hold its own in the conversation of notable areas for music, with eccentric and different sounding bands rising from the depths of its scene. “I think there is a serious importance in not having expectations,” Landry explains.

“I don’t think bands in New Orleans have ever sounded like one thing: they have been too weird or not stuck in a sound.

What New Orleans has going for it is how authentic it is.”

..

here is no doubt that part of All People’s authenticity comes from their behind the scenes involvement with Community Records, the label putting out All People. The label was founded in 2008 by Rodrigue and D-Ray and has been nothing short of a great for the scene in New Orleans ever since. The first idea of Community Records was to make a compilation of all the bands Rodrigue and D-Ray toured with. In that sense, the label is more of a collective idea that releases the best music from around the area and the industry. This spirit bleeds together with the identity of the DIY punk scene. Rodrigue even comments, “It makes my heart really happy that we get to work with New Orleans bands and that Community Records has become a conduit and platform for a bunch of bands that are trying to do something on a national level. The mission of the label is to help in whatever ways we can to participate in the national DIY scene and have New Orleans be a spot on the map.”

T

There’s more to be said than just that, as both Rodrigue and D-Ray are very inclusive, wanting to be a part of their favorite bands’ journey to the top. This includes releasing tapes and vinyl for them, as well as promoting the material on their Community Records website. The label has a healthy lineup of fantastic bands, including Donovan Wolfington, Pope, Woozy, and Boyfriend Material. For Community Records, everything feels genuine because it is.

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Recorded by Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart, Field Mouse’s sophomore studio album Episodic is available everywhere August 5, 2016 on CD, vinyl, cassette & digitally from Topshelf Records.

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The artist wanted everything to be a collaborative process. While he would be the one creating and executing the final piece, he still wanted to take Holt’s input into consideration, as he would be taking the blood-painted guitar with him on the road for at least one full tour.

“I didn’t want to just paint anything I wanted to paint on it, since this was a very literal extension of him,” Castiglia explains. “Our sensibilities and preferences aren’t much different, so it was perfectly in line. We’d corresponded a bit, and Gary really just told me to make it ‘sick’—that was the operative word for the project! We arrived at the concept of a classical depiction of the fallen angel, Lucifer.”

While many creatives become protective over their work, even when commissioned by someone else, Castiglia felt it was important to take the guitarist’s opinions to heart. “A guitar painted with an image that only suits my purpose which will constantly be on tour with Slayer didn’t make sense to me,” he adds. “This needed to have just as much of Gary and Slayer interwoven in it as my own preferences.”

THE ART OF

VINCENT CASTIGLIA INTERVIEW BY GABI CHEPURNY

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isionary artist Vincent Castiglia spent around 200 hours working on a one of a kind guitar for Slayer axeman Gary Holt, using the only medium appropriate for the job: human vital fluids from Holt’s own veins.

“It was a trip for sure,” Castiglia says of working with Holt on the project. “A client of mine, Brian Werner, vocalist of Vital Remains, had suggested the idea to me as a kind of ‘what if ’ scenario about painting a guitar in blood. He mentioned the idea to Gary, and Gary thought it was sickest concept ever, and that’s how Gary and I got to talking. I’ve been a Slayer fan since the early ‘90s, so to be working with them in this capacity was definitely yet another surreal professional experience for me.”

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To those who may judge the work based solely on the fact that it’s created in blood, Castiglia says all they have to do is look at it for a change of opinion.

“For anyone who has eyes in their head, once you see the work, you’re immediately confronted with hundreds and hundreds of hours of work, which is plain as day to see in its technical execution standing in front of one,” he asserts. “This isn’t blood getting sloppily splashed around here for effect. I’m an artist and, after many years of searching, connected with this medium in such a complete and all-encompassing way. I believe anyone who’s actually seen the work cannot deny its craftsmanship and thoughtfulness. And beyond this, it makes no difference to me. If someone doesn’t connect with it for any reason, that’s totally fine. It doesn’t change the reality that it exists and does so with purpose.”

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S

ean Gray—vocalist of Birth (Defects) and figurehead of Fan Death Records and Accidental Guest Recordings— conceived the website and community builder, Is This Venue Accessible?, out of necessity. “I have cerebral palsy,” Gray explains. “I use a walker to walk. I have been going to shows, be it DIY ones or otherwise, since I was 14 or 15. Growing up, I just got used to venues and places that were not accessible to me. A lot of the time, I would have help from friends, but others, I just wouldn’t be able to go due to the inaccessibility of the venue.”

“In my mid-20s, towards my tail end of college, I started to dive into disability studies a little bit, which helped me sort of ‘own my disability’ and realize the world is inaccessible to me,” he continues. “I also realized that an inaccessible world to me is a form of oppression.

Through this, I started to see the world differently. Not in a pessimistic way, but in a way that was realistic. I started to realize that ableism does exist. It may not be front facing, but it was there, and not being able to get into buildings, venues, or other places is a form of that.”

Is This Venue Accessible? really took off after Gray was unexpectedly laid-off. “I was down and out and stayed inside for most of the week,” he remembers. “Around the end of the week, I wanted to get out and see a band I’d been meaning to see for a while. I knew this could be a way to sort of mourn my job. I did what many do today, which is look up the event on Facebook. I realized it was at a place I knew was not accessible. Feeling down and rejected, I got angry.”

“At first, I thought, ‘I could call out the venue or make a big public stink,’ but in today’s web 2.0 world, a lot of that can get pushed down to the bottom. Also, accessibility is not a ‘sexy issue.’ I thought about calling out the band, but that really wouldn’t do much good either. I have been lucky enough through running record labels and playing in bands to be able to go to shows and have a community to help me. I decided that I would map out every venue in Washington, D.C., I have been to. I wanted to catalog what is and isn’t accessible about it and give as much detail as I could. After seeing the data, even I was floored at how many venues were not accessible to me. I live with inaccessibility, but this still did something to me.”

Originally, Is This Venue Accessible? emerged as a way for Gray to track the accessibility or inaccessibility of places he’d visited or not been able to visit. Quickly, the idea began rolling downhill at a rate impossible for Gray to ignore. He realized it could be a detailed catalog of information for use by others, and that it might also encourage show spaces to change if they weren’t accessible. “I started a Tumblr and just called it ‘Is This Venue Accessible?’” he explains. “I just wanted the data for me, really, but as I thought about it, I realized that I also have been lucky to go to venues all around the U.S. and the world. Why not add them too? Why not ask friends to help? It just snowballed from there.”

Today, information for Is This Venue Accessible? is largely crowdsourced. “That’s what is great about it,” Gray beams. “It’s totally built off the backbone of community. It also gives those, abled-bodied and not, a sort of stake in this. It makes it feel like to really help this, it’s on you, the show-goer. At least a few a week come in. It’s been growing.”

Although there is no “one size fits all” solution to inaccessibility in physical spaces, information is valuable and powerful, and it takes a larger community’s awareness and commitment to provide this type of information. “There are certain sites that are doing the same thing in terms of buildings and their accessibility, but many of them tend to try to quantify accessibility, which in my mind you cannot do,” Gray asserts.

“What does a 9.0 mean or four stars mean? Disability is a spectrum, and, while this sounds pessimistic, there will never be a building that

is truly accessible. Accessibility is about having information and as much as possible. It’s not just about if there are stairs—what about the bathrooms? Going to shows is a social experience, and if you’d like to get a drink with friends or something, but can’t even get to the bathroom, that’s inaccessibility. The venue is cutting off, for many, an important part of live music.”

According to Gray, the size and scope of the venue are also concerns. “One of the big things people tend to forget—even some in the disability community—is invisible disabilities,” he notes.

“Just because one does not have a mobility device, does that mean that they don’t have a disability?

We just added a max capacity field when submitting a venue, and I think that is super important.”

Music fans aren’t the only users who’ve provided Gray with feedback on the site. He says that performers have also used Is This Venue Accessible? when booking shows and tours. “A few artists have told me it has become a useful tool for them when deciding what may be the best place for them to play,” he says. “The biggest thing I have seen is more and more promoters are using it as a tool. It is 2016, if you can put information from ‘all ages’ [to] price to ‘safe space,’ you should have accessibility information or a contact to give that information. I truly believe if you are not even trying to do that, even if the venue may not be accessible, you are screwing up.”

Gray says the issue of accessibility is larger than physical spaces; it’s a question of who has access to art and culture in general. In March, Gray did an unofficial panel at SXSW on accessibility at venues, adding that SXSW rejected it officially and picked a panel on disabilities as a marketing demo of sorts. “One of the questions I asked the crowd, which I believe was made up of mostly abledbodied people, was: ‘How many of you here have been to a show that has changed your life?’” he recalls.

“All of them raised their hands. I then said, ‘Imagine never going

to that show, not because you had to work or something came up, but because you weren’t allowed.

Would your life be the same?’ You could see and hear people say, ‘No, my life wouldn’t be the same.’

That’s how much music and art can change someone.”

“When you have a disability, socially, you are viewed as not being able to feel certain things like anger, sexuality, and I believe art and culture fall into what we are not allowed to have,” Gray continues. “I am here to change that perception. I am not the only one with a disability who cares about music such as hardcore or noise and wants to be involved. I know for a fact I am not. People say, ‘Well, I don’t see people with disabilities at shows,’ and that’s because we don’t have the information to feel like we are allowed at these shows. I assure you that with information and acceptance, you will see more people with disabilities at shows.”

Moving forward, Gray says that he’s currently in the planning stages for an Is This Venue Accessible? app. “We have some really great things planned,” he teases. “This will be a completely different user experience than just what you see on the site.

It won’t be a replication. From front to back, it will be an app that you can use to help you get to that show. We will be doing crowdfunding for it in June.”

In the meantime, Gray is hungry for feedback, not just because it helps him with the project, but because he’s hoping that others with disabilities will be encouraged to emerge as leaders.

“Disability is a spectrum, and my story is just one of millions and millions,” he asserts. “While I feel very lucky to do interviews, I hope me speaking up helps others with disabilities tell their stories, become leaders, and to tell me and others what more we can be doing.

That is important and I truly believe that will happen.”

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Skeletonwitch: The Apothic Gloom Prosthetic Records

Skeletonwitch have been chomping at the skull to unleash their new vocalist, Wolvhammer’s Adam Clemans. The EP’s lead single, “Well of Despair,” showcases the band embracing their signature blackened thrash bite and a driving Motörhead bassline. Joined by a video—exhibiting that Lemmy-loving Rickenbacker bass—the single charges through new material reflective of the other three tracks on The Apothic Gloom, which is due on Aug. 19. A month long tour of the States is slated for October.

Walter Schreifels: “Overjoyed” b/w “Lover’s Theme” / An Open Letter to the Scene Run For Cover Records

Most remember Walter Schreifels as a youth crew renaissance man, but now, his solo acoustic work is being celebrated by Run For Cover Records. First, they released a 7” of two brand new songs, “Overjoyed”—which echoes the lush and sardonic work of Joe Pernice—and “Lover’s Theme,” an instrumental strummed over a drum machine. This single—with stark and striking artwork channeling 1920s design—is a serene and jarring addition to the re-pressing of Schreifel’s first solo LP, An Open Letter to the Scene, which features fun acoustic covers and original tracks that ensnare the audience with pertinent lyrics and drifting harmonies.

D.R.I.: But Wait… There’s More Beer City Records

Hardcore punks, crossover innovators, and downright cool dudes, D.R.I., came back this year. This five track EP, appropriately titled But Wait… There’s More, is now available as a 7”, CD, and 12” picture disc. The band are credited with fusing thrash and hardcore, but vocalist Kurt Brecht told the Phoenix New Times, “[The EP is] more old school hardcore, without the metal guitar sound.” Brecht and original guitarist Spike Cassidy recently added drummer Walter “Monsta” Ryan’s skill and fury to their tight, crisp form of punk. D.R.I.’s sound is as tight and fierce as ever.

Converge: You Fail Me Redux Epitaph / Deathwish Inc. Converge—already known for conjuring chaotic alchemy—shook the underground with Jane Doe in 2001 and their second masterpiece, You Fail Me, in 2004. Despite the latter album’s success, guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou was never content with the final mix. Now, Ballou has remixed You Fail Me. The album was remastered by Alan Douches. Epitaph handled the digital and CD releases, while Deathwish released the vinyl on June 17. New artwork and packaging by vocalist Jacob Bannon revitalizes this classic.

Converge hit Europe with Harm’s Way to celebrate.

Boris: Pink Sargent House

Some music is the pure exorcising of emotion, and some music is art. Boris like to blend the conventions. Since 1996, the Japanese trio have manipulated sounds and ideas to form riff-focused tracks. Pink, celebrating its 10th anniversary, was something different for Boris. This remastered triple LP edition gathers the album, extended versions of shortened songs, and nine bonus tracks, collected as Forbidden Songs. Boris mastered the ability—with tracks ranging from two minutes to 20—to capture atmospheric soundscapes, feral romps, and all the combinations in between. Boris embark on a five week tour of the U.S., playing Pink in its entirety, beginning July 22.

108: Threefold Misery Six Feet Under

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Aggressive. Heavy. Confrontational. Krishna. While Ray Cappo went poppy in Shelter, Rob Fish and Vic DiCara released their views with scathing disdain and music to match. Assimilating ‘90s math metal and off-time rhythms, 108’s brand of hardcore was vicious and isolating. With two lauded albums behind them on Equal Vision, 1996 saw 108 release Threefold Misery on Germany’s dubious label, Lost & Found. Long out of print, Threefold Misery is now reincarnated thanks to Six Feet Under, stunningly reimagined with stark artwork on mesmerizing red/gold vinyl. This dark masterpiece of indignation is back.

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Neurosis: A Sun that Never Sets / The Eye of Every Storm Relapse Records

Neurosis have been on a run with their reissues. Again, Relapse Records spares no detail on these two out-of-print gems. Starting as grimy anarcho punk in the late ‘80s, Neurosis expanded their minds and their sound throughout the years. These two LPs, from 2000 and 2004, exhibited the growing ability of the band to illustrate sounds and textured atmospheres, along with big riffs. The albums saw a new dawn of ideas and instrumentation in the band’s melancholic, cerebral metal. The new artwork and remastered sound here will engage listeners for at least another decade.

Drudkh / Hades Almighty: One Who Talks with the Fog Season Of Mist

Drudkh deliver the following punch after their full-length, A Furrow Cut Short, last year. They give us two songs on this split with Hades Almighty, who give us three tracks. This release of morose, atmospheric black metal with bloodcurdling blast beats will be released one time only via Season Of Mist on 1,000 gatefold LPs, 1,000 CDs, and 150 cassettes. Combining black metal’s ferocity and an epic feel, Drudkh’s creative leader, Roman Sayenko, weaves the tale of fellow Ukranian, Volodymyr Svidzins’kyi (1885–1941). The poet and writer fought Russian censorship until they murdered him.

Integrity / Power Trip: Split 12” Magic Bullet Records

The downside is that these tracks have all been released already… almost. The upside is that the new artwork—done by twisted visionary and Integrity shaman, Dwid Hellion—is striking and specific to each band. The gatefold opening joins the two bands visually. While four of the five tracks have been available on a 7”, these remixed tracks are now laid on a 12” single, mastered for 45 rpm. The fifth track is Integrity’s surprising choice to cover a song from the 1989 film “Twister.”

Available June 17.

how I should have seen the parties back in the day, “because this ain’t shit.” Coming from the guy who beat up Rick James and played pick-up with Prince, I’ll take that as word.

I

got a call from the lead singer of Set Your Goals, Matt Wilson: “I’m on tour with Snoop Dogg and his band is in NYC tomorrow. They wanna know if you can get them some weed?” I don’t sell pot—I’m not in high school— but I can understand helping someone out on the road, so I agreed. My main question was: why is Snoop Dogg’s band hitting me up for weed? To feel better about the situation, I said that they had to pick it up at my house downtown.

It was around 11 a.m. when I got a call: “I’m out front.” I went downstairs and was met

by Ron, the keyboard player and a big guy with dreads halfway down his back. I invited him to stay for a cup of tea and we rolled a joint. After a few hours of chatting, he told me he is a trained jazz musician—I happen to live on the same block as Downtown Music Gallery, a world famous avant-garde Jazz record store!

At this point, we were on a fullblown dude-date for about 5 hours. We were high as fuck, fumbling around with old records in the dusty basement shop. The snobby record nerds were quite impressed with the selection Ron bought and invited him to play on Sunday, but he would be out of town.

After a while, Ron realized that he had to head back uptown for sound check. “Look, I don’t have tickets or anything, but if you wanna come to my gig tonight, I can probably get

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like you found the right place.”

I walked into Ron’s dressing room to find him, Charlie Murphy, and Charlie’s giant bodyguard shooting the shit, smoking a joint in a circle. I gave Ron a joint, lit my own, and we all puffed away like When I say I took the first train old men in a Havana Cigar leaving, I mean it. We hopped shop. Charlie was fresh from on the F train straight uptown. the stage and the adrenaline The theater was sold out with was still in the air: “They used a line around the block. Not to tell me, “Charlie Murphy! only was it Dave Chappelle’s You ain’t shit!’ Now look at me! return to comedy, but Donnell Charlie Murphy just played Rawlings and Charlie Murphy Radio City, bitches!” did hour-long sets. It was the first time in 10 years the cast “Your set was great, man. You of Chappelle show had been had us dying in the audience,” I blurted out. back together and it was at the fucking Rock! To sum it “I had y’all rolling, didn’t I? I up: comedy history. was so excited to be up there.

As the crowd was shuffling At one point, I was just freeout, I made my way to the el- styling and kept going in on evator. The doors opened to ‘em. I didn’t even get to my reveal Judd Apatow and Amy third joke. If I would’a got all Schumer. Judd was standing the way through, I would’a in front of the buttons and, burned it down.” probably because I was stoned, I said, “Hey Juddy, can ya hit After a few joints, we realized the fourth floor for me?” He we were late for the after-parraised a perplexed eyebrow, ty. Charlie started pumping smiled, and hit it. Before the us up in the elevator, screamelevator doors even opened, ing at us to “get ready for the Amy and I both started doing player-haters ball.” We got off that “sniffing the air thing” the elevator at the top floor. smokers do when they smell Basically every famous perweed in public. The doors son in comedy and television opened and a cartoon-sized was there, just chilling like Rasta cloud of smoke poured regular people. I linked back up with Ron, and we were so into the elevator. stoned, we just pasted ourMaybe it was the dry eyes or selves against the wall near the hair down to my ass, but the snacks. Charlie came up, Judd laughed as I stepped off slapped me on the back, and the elevator and said, “Looks made some comment about you in the back door if you don’t mind not having a seat for the show. My buddy Dave Chappelle is doing his comeback show at Radio City Music hall and I play keys in the band for the evening.”

A wave came over me—all these people were friends, and I walked in here looking like the “Partied Out” guy in “Wayne’s World” who spews into a cup… and Lorne Michaels is sitting across the room. I wasn’t star-struck, just very stoned, so I thanked Ron and made my way towards the exit.

As I reached the front door, Dave Chappelle stepped into my path. He put out his hand and we shook. “Hey man, did you enjoy the show?”

“I found it to be very funny, Dave Chappelle,” I said with an awkward ring.

“You leaving? Are you gonna make it to the party downtown tonight?”

Let me stop for a second—I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about either. Party downtown tonight? I live downtown! I like to party, especially if it’s near my house.

But tonight, after chain-smoking joints with Charlie Murphy, I said: “Huh—party?

Wow! Sorry Dave—I can’t go.

I, uuuh—I have to go home. My girlfriend is there.” Not only was it pathetic, but it was a complete lie!

Dave gave me a weird look as if to say, “Man, you’re really too fucking stoned right now,” and shook his head as he walked away. I mention this story as a PSA of sorts: a reminder that, the next time you smoke a joint with Charlie Murphy, only smoke one.

That way, you can smoke the second joint at the party downtown later that night.

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