New Noise Magazine Issue #33

FQP shines a light on the joys and heartaches that lie at the intersection of the LGBTQIA+ community and the world of alternative music. While queer representation is often refracted through the prism of normative curiosities and concerns, FQP features queer voices saying whatever they want, however they want. Don’t fear the realness.

PHOTO: RAY GORDON

of suicidal ideation into recovery and out the other side into a place of love. I think if I can reach people through my songs or through TV or through the campaigns or through storytelling and embolden other people to stand up and be like, “Me too”—not in a sad way, but in a “high-five, I see you” kind of way— then I’ll feel really satisfied with my time here on earth.

ON TURNING NEGATIVES INTO POSITIVES

FEATURING SINGER-SONGWRITER LOGAN LYNN Portland singer-songwriter and mental health advocate Logan Lynn has walked through fire to become the person he is today, his path smoldering with embers of religious repression, sexual assault, drug abuse, suicidal ideation, homophobia, homelessness, and self-destruction. But his is not a story about the tragic immolation of an innocent spirit, nor the importance of malingering in the hope that, one day, things will get brighter. Lynn’s story is about action, his life a testament to the power in learning to control the burn, to nourish the earth so that new life may take root.

Amongst the ashes of his traumatic history, Lynn has planted seeds of art, community, and a renewed sense of self, cultivating an impressive career as a musician—his most recent record, ADIEU., was released in 2016—the founder of the advocacy campaign, Keep Oregon Well, and an exemplar for everyone struggling to flourish in harsh conditions. Through his many varied endeavors, Lynn inspires others to recognize that some of the world’s most beautiful flowers can only grow from mud and darkness.

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ON CHANGING THE NARRATIVE Somebody said to me at some point in time, “Logan, it doesn’t have to be pretty to be true, but if it’s true, it’s beautiful.” That’s real. Whether it’s homophobia or transphobia or violence or abuse or all this stuff that we think breaks us, if the trauma is interrupted with healing and you connect to your resilience, it actually can fuel the vehicle of your life in a way that is impossible otherwise.

I often get accused of glamorizing mental illness or glamorizing suicide or glamorizing drug addiction just from being open or trying to make it cool to talk about this stuff.

I used to fight against that. I used to be like, “No, I’m not! I’m glamorizing wellness!” Now, I just say, “Hell yeah! I am glamorizing mental illness. I’m trying.” If we ever get to a point where it’s thought of as glamorous [to seek help], I’ll be like, “My work here is done.” [Laughs] We’re so far from there. That’s the way stigma happens, with the silencing of new narratives.

My record ADIEU. came out last year, and it’s all about my journey

I was raised in a church where instrumental music wasn’t allowed; it was all a cappella. The quote is: “If God wanted you to have an instrument, he would’ve put it on your body.” So, I have a really keen appreciation for a cappella music.

I write all my songs a cappella—except for this new record, I wrote it on piano, but historically, everything starts as an a cappella spiritual, then I turn it into a song. That’s probably something that’s unusual, and it’s very much a part of that terribly abusive conservative church I grew up in, but I never would have had that as part of my process otherwise. It’s been a real gift.

ON PROBLEMATIC REPRESENTATION

I watch “The Real Housewives” of everywhere a lot; it’s totally problematic, but I do.

I tend to think visibility is always good. That can be controversial, because people want their visibility to be positive and representative of the best parts of us. But I’ve worked in LGBTQ communities for so long, and we’re all of it. If we only project the positive or that we all get along or that it’s “one size fits all,” all of that is equally problematic.

I was a very destructive gay person publicly for years. I think that was controversial and not totally positive always, but the fact that I

was out and public and visible and reaching 26 million people every week, that was positive. So, I think when we get into trying to silence people’s art or stuff like that, it actually hurts us. It’s better, from my perspective, to have a conversation about problematic art.

ON UNITY

Don’t cut your friends, just because you can’t cut the president, you know? […] If we collectively bargain and we collectively link arms—I think even beyond the LGBTQ community, if all minority groups got together, we wouldn’t be the minority anymore.

There’s a “crabs in the barrel” thing that happens too. The gay press, if anyone starts to be successful, they want to pull you back into that boiling pot with the other crabs. I reject that. I want to celebrate the good work of LGBTQ people. I started that Queer Heroes Northwest program over at [Portland LGBTQ community center] Q Center for that very reason, and I do the Mental Health Heroes Awards [through Keep Oregon Well] for that very reason, because everybody has a piece in changing the world. I think the problem we all get into is that we try to change it by ourselves.

To become a mental health hero, visit TrilliumFamily.org/advocacy/keep-oregon-well and take the pledge today!

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about to tell someone he likes them. It was so loud and intense in this unique way. It has one of my favorite guitar tones on any record ever.”

“Other times I’ve recorded, I’ve been sensitive and unsure of myself as a singer, and it hasn’t led to great results,” Minnick confesses. “It helped that I came more prepared and confident, but Scott had a great sense of how to get the best performance out of me. He pushed me to try some things I was unsure about and explore parts of my voice I’d been afraid of. The experience was really rewarding.”

POST-HARDCORE BY POST-YOUTHS- LESS ART INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MIKE MINNICK BY TIM ANDERL

When members of the baseball-themed hardcore band, Puig Destroyer, decided to dust off the peanuts and Cracker Jack and aim for the fences with a “real band,” they enlisted drummer Riley Breckenridge’s brother, guitarist Ed Breckenridge, and began cranking out weaponized “post-hardcore by post-youths” as Less Art. “I’ve known Ed and Riley [of Thrice] for a long time and have always wanted to do some sort of band with them,” vocalist Mike Minnick—also of Curl Up The city of Leeds rests in the northern end of England, just along the River Aire in Yorkshire county. Besides its vibrant nightlife and the Royal Armouries Museum—which houses the nation’s collection of weaponry—Leeds doesn’t have much to offer tourists. However, what the city lacks in tourist attractions it makes up for in its flourishing hardcore scene. Leading the latest wave of Leeds hardcore is grooving, melodic five-piece, Higher Power.

Higher Power put their own spin on the hardcore genre by wrapping massive guitar riffs in soaring chorus effects and coating the drums in echoing reverb, bringing new life to their sound. When paired with vocalist Jimmy Wizard’s unique combination of fluid singing and commanding barks, Higher Power pay homage to inspirations of the late ‘80s while forging their own path. This involves chasing after the distinct analog

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And Die—says. “I just never thought it would happen. We all had other bands and other shit happening. So, that aspect of it is special for me. I feel very lucky to get this opportunity. It’s rare when you get the chance to make music with people you respect and admire and happen to also get along with them.”

The band’s debut, Strangled Light—out July 28 through Gilead Media—was recorded and mixed by Scott Evans at Sharkbite Studios and Antisleep Audio, then mastered by Brad Boatright at Ausound that has influenced so many bands of the past and present. The band’s debut full-length, Soul Structure—released on May 19 via Flatspot Records—is an exhibition of their growth over the years into staples of the U.K. hardcore scene.

PHOTO: SCOTT EVANS

diosiege. “The process was amazing,” Minnick says. “[Bassist] Ian [Miller] and [guitarist] Jon [Howell] are in Kowloon Walled City with Scott, so that was one reason for doing the LP with him. They have worked together on their own records, and there’s some comfort and familiarity there. The other and more important thing is Scott makes great sounding records. I remember first hearing [Kowloon Walled City’s 2015 release], Grievances, and it making me sweat like a high school kid before he’s

Despite the band members’ previous lighthearted endeavor—crafting songs about stolen bases, bunting, and the like as Puig Destroyer—don’t expect a sunny day in the ballpark while navigating the nine tracks on Strangled Light. For instance, “Pessimism as Denial” describes a pretty grim path for the planet. “Destruction [is an eventuality]. Death, certainly,” Minnick asserts. “The timeline is the only variable. Currently, it feels like [the planet] is heading that way at an accelerated pace.”

With the future of humanity uncertain, Minnick is justifiably hesitant to commit to any long-term goals for Less Art. “We have no goals,” he says. “We just want to be a band and write songs and play shows. We are working out the details for [a tour in] the fall now.”

ANGRY YORKSHIRE HARDCORE- HIGHER POWER PHOTO: NATALIE WOOD

For Wizard, the growing U.K. hardcore scene has provided him with a place of transparency where he can truly be himself. The freedom to speak, the freedom to dance, and the freedom to be yourself has given the scene in Leeds the resources to blossom into what it is today. “It’s given everyone something they can be proud of,” Wizard says. “There’s no difference between the band and the crowd—it’s real.”

Higher Power are taking on the world in 2017 with festival appearances across the U.K. and Europe and intimate shows with some of the scene’s favorites.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JIMMY WIZARD BY YONG LOS

A mix of The Doors and Wire, Atlantabased band Art School Jocks formed in 2015 and have infused the sound of what they like to call “existential basement pop” into their debut selftitled EP, out June 2 via Father/ Daughter Records.

The band consists of four members— guitarists Deborah Hudson and Dianna Settles, bassist Camille Lindsley, and drummer Ali Bragg—all of whom share vocal duties. “Really, the band kind of fell into place, having known that there were friends of ours that we really like who could play instruments and who are interested in being in a band,” Hudson says.

Settles was going to an art school in San Francisco when the band were trying to come up with a name. It was not until she started talking about an athletic club that they eventually settled on Art School Jocks.

The band use a lot of chorus—a type of modulation effect that is used to create a heavier sound when there are multiple singers—which has helped them develop their pop-structured music. “I think that we really just lucked out with an interest in writing pop tunes, and also kind of our interest intersecting at harder, heavier music,” Hudson says. “I guess ‘punk’ would be the best way to put it.”

The EP’s first single, “Just a Gwen,” derives influence from No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.” “‘Just a Gwen’ is one reminder in a long lineage of reminders that we live in a society that places the responsibility for harassment and rape prevention on the women affected by it,” the band stated in an email to NPR Music in March.

“Campus organizations, articles, and pamphlets suggest ways to avoid becoming a target ranging from self-

EVOLUTION THROUGH REPETITION- FOTOCRIME

PHOTO:MICKIE WINTERS

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When Ryan Patterson started anew after Coliseum, he wanted to explore something that has now become a main tenet of his new project, Fotocrime: repetitive patterns. He even took on the moniker R.Pattern, and their debut EP, Always Hell was self-released in May. One such pattern was the use of the

Ohio’s Crypt Rot boast death metal with a dynamic sound, alchemically transforming their many influences.

The band include two—formerly three—ex-members of dark, metallic hardcore band, Homewrecker.

Slithering and vile, the treacherous tones they release encompass death metal, hardcore, powerviolence, and an aura of catastrophic fate. Southern Lord released their debut EP, Embryonic Devils, on April 28.

Embryonic Devils is belligerent death metal. The riffs are saturated in violence and vitriol. Furious sounds mirror pure chaos captured. Crypt Rot decided that “track recording made sense, since the technicality of the songs is so high,” vocalist and guitarist Ryan “Father Flesh” says.t “We didn’t want muddy it up, but wanted it to sound really raw and dirty—especially the drums. I’m so sick of hearing triggered drums on albums;

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past as an influence. “I do like the idea of old-meets-new, and there are certain antiquated sounds, particularly with drums, that I wanted to use,” R.Pattern says. “There are also elements of music, film, and literature that I wanted to bring together, at least conceptually, in Fotocrime: crime novels and the film noir movement they inspired, the

it’s inhuman and unreal. We wanted to provide an album that showcased musicianship, stuck to its influence, stayed real. I’ve been pent up with pain since my last release I did, and it showed on the album with the vocals.”

Crypt Rot incorporate atmospheric segues that paint daunting, hellish soundscapes. They add an inclusive feel, tying together the album’s five songs into a cinematic whole. Sposito ventured out to create and record the elements himself. “The bell in ‘Scaphist Waste’ is actually the church bell from the Catholic school I attended as a child,” he shares. “I wanted to create an atmosphere of surprise and creeping death. I wanted listeners to feel like they are taken on this journey of suffering. I am a huge horror movie fan, but I didn’t want to cross the line and become cheesy; I want it still to be taken seriously as a concept. I used my friend’s

EXISTENTIAL BASEMENT POP- ART SCHOOL JOCKS PHOTO: EVA NELSON

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST DEBORAH HUDSON BY NATALIE DAOUD defense pointers to more conservative fashion recommendations, rather than educating men on consent and the harm of sexual harassment.”

The EP will be available on cassette, and its seven tracks cover a wide range of topics from love to mental health.

Each one of Art School Jocks’ songs

has a distinctive title that illustrates the solid mixture of comical and serious characteristics possessed by the band. “We put a lot of thought into the position of our songs,” Hudson says. “but we’re all friends, and we have a really fucking great time just being around one another.”

technicolor façade of the midcentury American dream, dark ballad-singing crooners and troubadours of the ‘50s and ‘60s, how all of that affected and was filtered through the post-punk movement, and European art cinema of the ‘70s and ‘80s. In a way, it’s seeing history through the lens of art, seeing America through European and British music and film, then creating something new from these threads that connects to this current moment.”

“The B side songs, ‘Plate Glass Eyes’ and ‘Tectonic Shift,’ were chosen because they showed other aspects of the sounds and elements that are being explored in this band,” he continues. “It certainly took some time to find the vibe and voice for Fotocrime; I spent a lot of time writing, throwing things out, and refining in general before connecting with what I felt was the right sound. It was hard in the beginning, then flowed naturally when everything clicked.”

Fotocrime aren’t simply another throwback ‘80s group, as their three songs each have their own unique identity, only interconnected by a sense of darkness and a very melodic gloom.

“The three songs on the Always Hell EP aren’t the first Fotocrime songs I wrote, but were three that I chose to be the first to release publicly,” R.Pattern explains. “‘Always Hell’ felt like the best song to transition fans of my previous band to the Fotocrime material. It also seemed prescient lyrically and very connected to the increased worldwide threat of nuclear war since the takeover by the new American regime.”

R.Pattern is quick to note that Fotocrime are not agenda-driven, but does acknowledge some common themes. “If I had to search for a connective tissue, lyrically, between the three songs, it might be one of disconnection en masse from some factions of humans,” he shares. “Be it the ones who ‘turn away’ from those in exile in ‘Always Hell,’ the empty eyes of ‘phantoms of night’ in ‘Plate Glass Eyes,’ or the collective move away from a country I can recognize in ‘Tectonic Shift.’”

HELLISH SOUNDSCAPES OF DEATH- CRYPT ROT

I N T E R V I E W W I T H V O C A L I S T T / G U I TA R I S T R YA N " FAT H E R F L E S H " S P O S I T O B Y H U T C H wooden staircase, ran around dragging chains [and] screaming, recorded water faucets dripping, and basically anything that provided a horror-esque feel.”

“For the segue before [closing track], ‘Internal Organ Feast,’ I barely cooked a filet mignon and ate it with my bare

hands while one of the bandmates recorded it,” he adds. “I then mixed it with the sound of cracking celery to taunt the idea of ligaments and bones snapping. It was fun to do and allowed me to expand my creativity on the songs.”

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You ever hear an album and immediately want to tell everyone about it? The debut full-length from Phoenix-based band The Linecutters is that kind of personal revelation. Anthill—released in May via Slope Records—is so damn good. Sure, the crossover ska style has been done before, but few dare to push the metal, hardcore, punk, and ska flourishes so far and still manage to create cohesive songs. There’s also a surprising level of melody in the madness.

The band’s intricate, infectious mix of thrash, hardcore, and ska is certainly unique. Of The Linecutters’ sonic origins, vocalist and bassist Jett Smith explains, “I suppose we came up with our sound via all of us having different tastes in music and our influences coming together to make a chaotic, diverse, and fun mess. Our sound has definitely evolved since the beginning

of the band. At the start, we just wanted to start a punk band like Choking Victim [or] Leftöver Crack. As time passed, we got into different kinds of music, and it has definitely influenced our songwriting.”

Vocalist and guitarist Marceliano Festa agrees, and elaborates, “Our sound is definitely evolving to be more complex and musically intricate. We try to ride the line between heavy and melodic, and as seamlessly as possible.” Songs like “Jett Fuel” and “Security” are as frantic and technical as there are memorable, and it’s clear the group’s sharp learning curve is a harbinger for further excellence down the road.

UNDER A MAGNIFYING GLASS- THE LINECUTTERS

INTERVIEW WITH JETT SMITH AND MARCELIANO FESTA BY NICHOLAS SENIOR break, feeling alienated by capitalism, and a general sense of hopelessness for the future,” Smith explains. “With the direction our society is going—the rise of far-right nationalist bullshit—there is just a lot to be angry about. This record was us basically expressing our discontent.”

Festa adds, “All the songs start as a way of relieving stress, turning negative emotions and experiences into songs, which is a healing process for me. With ‘Leafy Greens,’ that isn’t necessarily the case; that’s just a relaxing song to get stoned to,” he laughs.

the delivery. I have to figure out what it means later. I have to figure out what the hell I’m talking about.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JIM JONES BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

Natural—released May 12 on Hound Gawd! Records, through a licensing deal with the band’s own label, MaSonic— Jones handles vocals and guitar, backed

by Malcolm Troon on guitar and pedal steel, Matt Millership on keyboard, Gavin Jay on bass and upright bass, and Phil Martini on drums. The band had one simple goal when it came to the music contained in the record’s grooves. “One of the things I was aiming for in the songs and the production was to get it to sound raw but exotic at the same time,” Jones says. Mission accomplished. §uper Natural dishes up a tasty concoction of swampy blues punk that is dark and enticing. It rocks and swings mightily.

Jim Jones has been in quite a few bands over the course of his musical career, such as Black Moses and Thee Hypnotics. His new project—which bears his name—is no different from his previous ones, with one major exception. “The main difference between ‘em is that one of them is alive and

happening now,” Jones says. “If rock ‘n’ roll is your drug of choice, I’m still your dealer, I’m just standing on a different corner. You’ll soon get used to it. Come see me.”

On Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind’s debut full-length, §uper

When it comes to lyrics, Jones is inspired by “whatever lights up my ears,” he says. “You hear stuff all over the place.

I think, quite often, you just have to be listening. Sometimes, I have words that don’t start out meaning much, but they are the most suitable for the rhythm of

Composed of more than half of the members of grind and metalcore visionaries Burnt By The Sun, the sleek and crushing River Black offer a blunt and flawless take on extreme metal. The band’s sound is a wholesome attack of thrash, hardcore, grind, and punk, reaching for the very epicenter of contemporary intensity. The group’s self-titled debut full-length comes out July 7 via Season Of Mist.

read each other’s minds. We’re pretty much one organism when we’re playing.

The stuff just comes out so naturally.”

OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS, ALL TEETH- RIVER BLACK

Lyrically, Anthill is in-your-face, taking certain emotions and stretching them to their extremes. “This record in particular has a focus on depression, heart-

PUSHER MAN- JIM JONES AND THE RIGHTEOUS MIND

PHOTO: STEVE GULLICK

“Towards the end of Burnt By The Sun, [guitarist] John [Adubato] and I were still writing material, and we both wanted to keep it going,” drummer Dave Witte notes. “We still thought we had a lot more stuff to do.” Witte and Adubato have always enjoyed a seamless dynamic. In Burnt By The Sun, they basically helped create a new definition of hardcore and heavy metal, palpable in the transcending songs they forged: the grooves completely original and unique.

“John and I are a musical connection like no other,” Witte says. “It’s like we can

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River Black provide a chance to take their vision further. They kept writing after Burnt By The Sun ended and, eventually, vocalist Mike Olender got the itch to work with his old bandmates again.

They picked up Revocation bassist Brett Bamberger and a new behemoth was forged. River Black are a shadowy force.

“We certainly wanted something darker and angrier,” Witte says. “The new record’s got a lot of teeth, a lot of intensity.”

Witte is a drumming legend. He’s Municipal Waste’s current skinsman and has worked with such luminaries as Discordance Axis, Human Remains, and the wild and experimental tech-noise punks in Melt-Banana. It was while playing with the latter that Witte found an extra level he never knew existed. “That was a wild ride,” he remarks. “It was really amazing to play with those guys: so

In addition, §uper Natural comes draped in a gorgeous cover by renowned French illustrator and tattoo artist Jean-Luc Navette, who previously worked with the band for their Boil Yer Blood EP. “We’ve been friends with Navette for years,” Jones says. “Such a talent. I think we were waiting for a long time to get him to work with us, and this LP was the perfect excuse. We sent him the music, and he sent us back his masterpiece.”

This is just the start for the band, and fans can expect much more in the future.

“We’re only just starting to find out what we’re capable of as a unit,” Jones concludes. “Our thing is just beginning to grow some claws and a bit of hair on its balls. It’s a nice feeling: watching as it begins to rear its ugly head.”

PHOTO: SCOTT KINKADE

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER DAVE WITTE BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON original and intense. They took me all over the world, and I got to experience so much because of them. I’ll never forget it.”

Playing since the early ‘90s, Witte keeps getting better year after year. With so much already accomplished, he remains intensely focused. His peers help keep

him so. “You know, we came up with the Mastodon guys, and after all these years, they’re putting out their most successful record yet,” he shares. “That’s really encouraging and inspiring to see. This little metal community is so crucial for encouragement, support, and inspiration. I’m a lucky guy.”

Saxophonist Colin Stetson is best known for his work with indie bands like Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and Animal Collective, as well as his own solo output. But it turns out there’s been an experimental post-metal bandleader lurking under the surface the whole time. Stetson’s new group, EX EYE, are set to release their self-titled debut album via—who else?—Relapse Records on June 23.

Some may think putting saxophones in rock music is just for Bruce Springsteen, but they’d be wrong. EX EYE is sinister and brooding, and its compositions are slippery and always shifting. This is thinking man’s heavy music in the finest post-metal tradition.

Perhaps it’s not all that surprising, given the musical ensemble Stetson has assembled. As he tells it, the songwriting is a truly collaborative effort, though EX EYE are clearly built on his initial vision.

The band first came together in 2016 when Stetson tapped drummer Greg Fox of Liturgy, keyboardist Shahzad Ismaily of Secret Chiefs 3 and Ceramic Dog, and guitarist Toby Summerfield to help achieve that vision. “There was a convergence of pathways that led both Greg and I to the number 11,” Stetson says, “instances in history of various mysticisms and mathematics, geometries and shapes, and I had started to write a somewhat science fiction-tinged narrative involving the moon Europa and the discovery of 11 non-sentient lifeforms, which were dubbed the XI, soon to be replaced by the slang, ‘EX EYE.’ It’s something that we riff on from time to time, a good and fantastical source of inspiration when inspiration is needed.”

Metal, of course, is a guitar-based genre, and most metal songs typically start their lives as a guitar riff. So, how did EX EYE approach songwriting for their debut?

SERIOUSLY NOT TAKING SHIT SERIOUSLY- SMIDLEY

PHOTO:HAYDEN MOLINAROLO

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CONOR MURPHY BY SEAN GONZALEZ Conor Murphy is best known as the vocalist of Foxing, and rightfully so.

Foxing’s major themes and serious attitude allow for their albums to be picked apart as one compositional score.

Then, there’s Smidley, named after Murphy’s recently passed dog. Smidley’s

songs began taking shape while Murphy was recording Foxing’s last record, but ultimately did not fit the vibe. “I started showing [them] to friends, and it kept getting more serious,” he describes, “to the point where I showed it to the guy that runs our label, [Fred Feldman of

With Gaslight Anthem taking a break, their guitarist Alex Rosamilia saw a great opportunity to hook up with his longtime friend Corey Perez and start work on another project. “The decision to start Dead Swords came out of Gaslight taking a bit of time off.

I thought it was time I tried writing songs,” Rosamilia says. “I ended up with a couple of songs on acoustic, actually, and decided to do something different with them. I’ve always been a fan of heavier and ‘doomier’ sounding music and decided to incorporate that as well.

After I had a few demos, I showed them to Corey and that was that.”

The New Jersey-based duo go way back. “Corey and I first met from being in bands and having mutual friends in the New Brunswick music scene,” Rosamilia says. “I was staying on our friend Parker’s couch, and we would just kind of hang out. I remember a lot of Taco Bell.”

The “that” in this case is two EPs: Skeletons from late 2016 and Broken Souls, released on March 10. On May 5, the albums were finally released on vinyl for the first time via Bandcamp. The vinyl package also includes expanded artwork by Rosamilia.

Perez has been in a number of bands over the years—including Bottomfeeder, I Am The Avalanche, and Let Me Run— but don’t expect Dead Swords to sound like a mashup of I Am The Avalanche and Gaslight Anthem. “Like I said, I’ve always loved heavier bands; it was my bread and butter growing up,” Rosamilia says. “It was always a conscious decision to make a band that catered more to those musical tastes. I picked Corey to play guitar, because I feel like we have very similar playing styles, as well as tastes in music. I wanted someone to bounce ideas off of and whose answers

N.Y.’S ALRIGHT IF YOU LIKE SAXOPHONES- EX EYE

INTERVIEW WITH SAXOPHONIST COLIN STETSON BY MIKE GAWORECKI “Several [songs] started as sax riffage, several were almost entirely through composed by Toby, and still others were born of the whole band improvising,” Stetson explains. “But all of the songs ultimately were a group effort and involved the improvisational and compositional contributions of all four of us. We play

through forms and add and subtract, building each piece until it feels whole.”

Triple Crown Records], and he was like, ‘I’ll put this out, and I’ll throw you some money to record it properly.’”

but its sound is the most comforting aspect. The tone of the album is carefree, utilizing beaming hooks and bright textured guitars to bring forth a dreampop vibe. Each song is an earworm, with easy-to-remember refrains, like on “No One Likes You” and “Fuck This.” The former is an honest narrative of being in a touring band, while the latter rolls through the different fucked up, weird scenarios that brings forth.

After such stunningly positive feedback, Murphy’s side project is now enjoying the release of a debut full-length, Smidley, out June 2. The vision of Smidley is lensed through Murphy’s self-awareness. “I tried to make it an honest reflection of where I was when I was writing it,” he says. “In that way, a lot of it was about playing in a touring band and taking yourself seriously all the time and trying not to.” Smidley is full of damned-right catchy tunes, showcasing a vocalist comfortable in his skin and able to talk honestly about his life, as seen immediately on opening track, “Hell.” “There’s no sadness, it just is an immediate ‘This is the record, and it’s not going to be sad,’” Murphy explains.

“It’s going to be about drugs and your friends and recognizing it for what it is.”

Smidley’s lyrics tackle Murphy’s life,

“Our only intention, really, was to make something heavy and dense, yet still melodic,” he adds, “building a new kind of noise out of a density of melodic harmonic information.”

Tying the record up thematically is “Milkshake,” a song about having a good, hard cry in a car. “That one arguably is the saddest song on the record, but it’s not actually sad to me,” Murphy states.

“It feels, like, more appropriate than sad—maybe that just means I am a sad person, I don’t know. Any time I listen to it, I am not like, ‘Man, how depressing is this?’ I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, that was last Wednesday or something,’” he laughs.

Smidley is a collection about feeling at one with life, and for Murphy, it’s a clear breath of fresh air.

DRONE, FUZZ, AND FRIENDSHIP- DEAD SWORDS

PHOTO:GREG PALLANTE

INTERVIEW WITH ALEX ROSAMILIA BY JOHN B. MOORE wouldn’t be coming from left field.”

Rosamilia stresses that these two EPs are just the start for Dead Swords. In fact, he’s already demoing a couple of songs and would like to put out another digital EP by late 2017 or early 2018.

Until then, he and Perez plan on writing

more and touring when they can. “We have a couple other shows planned throughout the summer, most notably with our friends d’arcy in August,” he says. “We’ll see where the rest of 2017 takes us.”

NEW NOISE

11

SWEEPING EXITS

“My first serious love affair with horror was in seventh grade, watching movies with punk friends who were into [directors Dario] Argento and [David] Cronenberg,” says Mira Glitterhound, vocalist, guitarist, and arranger for Portland’s Sweeping Exits. “I also saw The Cramps around this time, which planted a seed in my mind of what a live show could be. Horror’s importance in my life resurfaced in my early 20s as a coping mechanism for a number of things I was going through at the time.” “[Later], I started writing surrealist pieces about my body being mutilated, which sounds dark but felt incredibly liberating,” she continues. “I studied Dada and Surrealism, feeling that these artists were seeking the same thing that I was. I would sit with my sketchbook, drawing characters, storyboarding, and writing while I listened to Mozart. It was the perfect escape. Then, as I came out as trans and encountered a new slew of traumatic experiences, horror and Surrealism gave voice to my desire to be free of oppression.”

Those early musings have now blossomed into the glam punk sounds of Sweeping Exits, a group of five queer vampires seeking liberation from daily injustices through a horror-infused universe of their own creation. Their debut full-length, Glitter & Blood—released June 9 via Matriarch Queen Records— offers the first peek into their world of darkness, opulence, and queer power.

TRICOT

Japanese trio tricot embody the restlessness and frantic nature of the world today. Their style varies widely, switching from the post-hardcore drive of At The Drive-In to the pop punk accessibility of Paramore to the math-rock genius of bands like Enemies. They’re as unconventional—as seen with their cast of rotating drummers—and indie as a band could get, making waves across Asia and Europe, where they just toured with Pixies.

However, they wanted to crack the North American market and contacted Topshelf Records—who had featured the band on a digital sampler in 2014— which led to the release of their third full-length, 3, on May 17.

Following 2013’s THE and 2015’s AND, 3 has been deemed a simplified, unthemed record by the band, despite roaming all over the place musically. On their poppier sensibilities, vocalist Ikumi “Ikkyu” Nakajima refers to a specific dance track on the album. “I often feel that intense music is transmitted to pop

12 NEW NOISE

Horror has long been a way for societies to confront their collective fears and experience catharsis in a safe environment, with most movie monsters representing perceived threats to the mainstream status quo. “I think, in a way, we take the tradition and turn it on its head,” Glitterhound explains. “The ‘monsters’ are the protagonists in our stories, and the humans represent oppression and submission to a banal existence. As a queer person, I feel much more connected to the demonized ‘other’ than I do to the guy with nice teeth who kills the monster. So, rather than saving the town from the monster, I’m saving the monster from the town.”

On Glitter & Blood, that “monster” is the queer vampire Desmond, “who becomes a rock star and, eventually, Queen of the Vampires,” Glitterhound shares. “Thematically, it’s a reflection on my experience as a queer person, as well as my personal ambitions. It’s set in the 1970s and seeks to blend glam with first wave punk.” The record is the first installment of a four-LP series. “Each record will have a vastly different sound and be set in a different time [and] place within the same storyline,” she says.

Sweeping Exits’ world in which queer people have the power may be fictional, but their commanding message has practical applications as well. “I would love if young queer people could take something from our work out into the world,” Glitterhound says. “I want the art to act as a salve to ease their pain, but also an inspiration to take action.

I want to convey that the war against queer people’s lives and bodies will nev-

I N T E R V I E W W I T H V O C A L I S T / G U I TA R I S T M I R A G L I T T E R H O U N D B Y K E L L E Y O ' D E AT H er succeed, because there’s just too many of us. I think what it will look like long term is future generations refusing to be oppressed because they grew up seeing trans celebrities and trans [artists] in the mainstream. I also want to convey that every queer person is OK wherever they’re at and not shame anyone who isn’t out or who can’t ‘take a stand’ at this time.”

While their themes are essential to Sweeping Exits’ musical identity, all glam bands worth their salt recognize the importance of aesthetics. “I’m not someone who cares about looking a certain way when I go to the grocery store,” Glitterhound notes, “but with the band, I focus on maintaining a consistent look and feel. This aids the narratives within the music, and helps the audience ‘fall into’ the experience of our live show. I want people to be able to run away into our world; I want

them to live the fantasy we’re creating in that moment.”

Glitterhound says attendees of their shows can “expect lots of blood, lingerie, and [vocalist and keyboardist] Myrrh Crow looking you in the eyes as ze sings the words, ‘No one can hear you scream…’” Pitchfork-wielding townsfolk need not apply.

in the end,” she says. “I think that ‘Yosoiki’ is sufficiently rock as well. When we are making songs—sad songs or difficult songs—I don’t want to [forget] the fun of music. So there, we can be said to be a pop act in that way.” She describes “Sukima” in the same vein, as it’s just as hip-swaying and dance-y.

Regarding their evolution, Nakajima adds, “This time, the mixed sounds was not our aim, but instead, things naturally resulted in an album rich in variety, with a different main character for each song.”

Their best essence comes with their prog-iest and most punk tones, exemplified on tracks like album opener, “Tokyo Vampire Hotel,” and “Setsuyakuka.” The aggression feels fluid and elastic while still maintaining breathing room. However, bassist Hiromi “Hirohiro” Sagane refuses to take sides on which style tricot are most adept at. “Listening to both [the] intense songs and quiet songs by myself, each song sounds comfortable,” she states. “I think all songs become the sound of tricot when we play.” When pressed to pick a fast-paced favorite, she admits, “I do not know if it is [the] strongest, but I think that ‘18, 19’ is a very aggressive song.”

INTERVIEW WITH IKUMI MAKAJIMA, MOTOKO KIDA, AND HIROMI SAGANE BY RENALDO MATADEEN “We did not decide a theme for the album,” guitarist Motoko “Motifour” Kida sharply interjects to ensure that it’s clear there’s no definition for how 3 sounds or feels. “We made the album while having fun.” “Experimental” is how she best labels their new offering. Asked about this wandering approach to music-making, she reveals, “I can’t specify. I think I tend to be fascinated by music that I don’t have in myself. Music with surprises and fun.”

WHITE SUNS

White Suns’ last record—2014’s Totem— was the ultimate dismantling of a traditional rock setup. The band—who call New York City home—rearranged the notion of what experimental music could be. By harnessing the power of a guitar-bass-drums rock trio, but clearly destroying any semblance of specification, the group were able to define a new biography of sound. Their newest album, Psychic Drift—out June 16 on The Flenser—continues the dissection.

“My favorite tracks on Totem were the ones that we were aiming to write songs that had lots of open structure,” drummer Dana Mattheissen notes. “They still had sets of coordinated sounds or styles of play, but didn’t require clearly defined measured lengths, rhythms, and chord progressions” Psychic Drift is pure annihilation of those traditional forms, driving directly towards the ever-pulsing noise world, where structures become modes and modes become infinite questions.

White Suns are moving backwards, inwards, and finding a new depth within a lost simplicity. “Our band was always straddling the rock steed, but had both feet dipped in the improvisation and noise pools,” Mattheissen explains. “So, it just struck us as a logical move to slide off the mount entirely.”

Longtime guitarist Rick Visser— who didn’t actually play on the new record, but will join the band for the record’s upcoming tour—agrees with Mattheissen. “When I listen back to the evolution of our older material, I see the most growth, philosophically,” he notes, “not so much with the ‘rock’ format tracks we spent so much time composing, but more with the improvisational material that we were all working individually on.”

White Suns have always been daring and exploratory, a group with a defiant bent. Their penchant for inspection has produced three full-lengths of varying juxtaposition, each record a style of its own landscape. The band were birthed in Brooklyn and never lose sight of the uniqueness of the city’s underground community. “When we first started the band, the DIY community in Brooklyn was an immense source of support,” vocalist and guitarist Kevin Barry says.

“I think creative communities provide a unique pressure to constantly improve one’s work, which I think is essential.”

“Community sustains the sort of music we’re interested in,” Mattheissen adds. “Very few people are making much of a living doing this; it is the ongoing interests and passions of people who have been led toward a particular aesthetic cluster that keeps it alive. In the case of noise, the community is pretty far-reaching and interconnected. I’ve come to know people and projects from all over the country.”

THUNDER DREAMER Indiana’s Thunder Dreamer are all about slivers of light in the dark. Initially the solo project of vocalist and songwriter Steven Hamilton, the act grew to a four-piece, evolving from a 2013 self-titled EP to their debut full-length, Lonesome Morning, a year later. By then, they found themselves meshing together shoegaze, emo, and post-rock, a combination they bring full-circle on their latest release, Capture, released May 26 via 6131 Records.

“The [new] album goes back and forth between heartbreak and the negative traits of humanity—the struggle to do what is right,” Hamilton says. “I had images of nature in my head and the idea that we slowly destroy what is truly dear to us. I guess the overall theme is that people are selfish, including myself. Happy stuff, right?”

“Having a full band brought in different influences of music,” he continues. “Before, I would just write songs and play solo, usually just acoustic.

But now, there are many layers. Now,

14 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH DANA MATTHEISSEN, KEVIN BARRY, AND RICK VISSER BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON “When we all moved to Brooklyn together, we found ourselves in the midst of a growing, productive, and really strong community,” Visser recalls.

“I have always delighted in the sheer amount of travel we have been able to do, the people we’ve met along the way, the floors we’ve stayed on, and the cities and towns we’ve experienced. It’s been an amazing ride.”

Psychic Drift is a new direction for White Suns, a chance to test the limits of connection. When the band hit the road for the next tour, they’ll do so in an unfamiliar way. Pairing down their gear—Psychic Drift is all synthesizers, field recordings, and samples—has provoked an infusing of quickening spirit. “I’m particularly excited about composing for this next tour, simply

because of the limitations placed upon us,” Visser notes. “Traveling without our own amplification systems and trying to limit gear in order to fly literally back and forth across the country will place interesting restrictions on future compositions. I personally find it quite enjoyable to work within constructs not of our own design.”

By employing the narrative of chance, White Suns have continued to grow.

Their noise is pure: immense and always fleeting.

PHOTO: SCOTT KINKADE

when I bring a song to practice that’s partially done, it becomes something completely different than what I first imagined. It’s good to have other ideas and opinions on how a song should unfold.”

On the influences that shaped the mood of Capture, Hamilton adds, “Two years ago, when I was making some of these songs, I was listening to a lot of Pure X. Their album Angel was something I listened to nonstop for a while. The Magnolia Electric Co., A. A. Bondy, and Blonde Redhead— these are just some of my favorite artists. When working with bandmates, though, I feel there are plenty of influences pouring into the creative process.”

The end result? “Midwestern emo burn is a good way to put it,” he affirms. “With Capture, I just wanted it to be simple and sincere. I’d say dreamy rock.”

Capture uses this musical diversity to fixate on tragedy and love. Detailing

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST STEVEN HAMILTON BY RENALDO MATADEEN the Foxing-esque title track, Hamilton concludes, “When I started writing the lyrics, it kind of turned into a horror movie. I’m not sure if it really all comes through the lyrics, but in my mind, it’s as if the earth is turning against mankind. The earth is getting its revenge. I imagined someone trying to escape the forest at night. I have pictures in my mind to put into words.

It won’t always come out exactly how I meant it. So, with many of my songs, I think it’s difficult for someone to know what it’s exactly about. That’s

fine with me, though; I prefer to be vague in my writing.”

“The Bridge” is another slow-burn he describes as “a song about finding one’s own purpose in life—the struggle we go through to do what we love even though there are always outside forces pushing you to do something else. It’s about the choices we all must make, good and bad.”

KEVIN MORBY

“There has always been country music.

Now, there is city music,” Kevin Morby says, explaining the inspiration behind his latest solo offering, City Music, released via Dead Oceans on June 16.

The music Morby composed for the 12 new songs touches on the sounds a traveler might hear while walking down a typical American sidewalk, with hints of country, folk, jazz, punk, rock, and late night acoustic noodling.

The set is quiet but energetic, finding the perfect balance between introspective lyrics and stirring music.

“I was actually going for an energetic album,” Morby says. “I was going for something that listens best when played in a cityscape.”

Morby has been in bands and on the road for most of his life. He was the bassist in the psychedelic folk rock outfit, Woods, and one of the frontpersons of The Babies, a band he put together with Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls. Spending time in cities he never really had the time to explore had a lasting impact on his creativity, not to mention the dislocation he had to deal with as a boy. “I’m a middle class American,” he says. “I grew up in five different cities in the Midwest.”

PISS TEST

When he was 18, he left Kansas City for New York, thinking he’d become a songwriter, inspired by Third Eye Blind’s “Semi Charmed Life,” a song that impressed him when he was 8 years old. After working a series of odd jobs, he joined Woods, opting for life as a touring musician. He says he was ready to move on from the steady diet of ramen he’d been living on since coming to New York.

Morby was writing songs, but they didn’t fit the format of Woods or The Babies, so he started making solo records. His first, 2013’s Harlem River, shares some similarities with City Music, with its insightful vignettes of city life. The sound of Harlem River echoed the folk rock of the ‘60s, while City Music is folky, but has a timeless energy that tips its hat to punk, jazz, and pop. “1234”—a tribute to the Ramones and Jim Carroll—is a forceful blast of punk rock. “Cry Baby” is a quiet mid-tempo ballad that suggests The Velvet Underground with Morby’s half-sung, half-spoken vocal, while “Night Time” is a touching piano ballad that explores the hypnotic lure of listening to your favorite music late at night and slipping into a state of blissful loneliness.

The songs were cut live in the studio, with his band—guitarist Megan Duffy, drummer Justin Sullivan, and vocalist

“I wouldn’t say I strive for a sense of greater purpose in my ‘art,’” lead vocalist, guitarist, and former Red Dons member Zach Brooks notes. “I may be an asshole, but I’m not a pretentious asshole.”

LPII rolls hard like an ‘80s firestorm, all fast, meaty, and blunt. Its beauty lies in its appreciation for both the lighter and darker sides of humanity. It’s comical and urgent. “The time is always right for ‘mindful’ punk songs,” Brooks says.

“The time is also always ripe for dumb punk songs. Sometimes, we write songs about urban displacement or the intersection of domestic violence and

“Arizona Cops” is one of the record’s most intense tracks: a song with a very specific tale, but one that takes on a much larger meaning when considering the pathetic “police” state Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, and company are attempting to build—or fortify, depending on your perspective. It’s an anthem for the underground and a righteous piece of civil disobedience.

16 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH SINGER-SONGWRITER KEVIN MORBY BY J. POET Meg Baird—and producer Richard Swift, who also contributed organ and percussion. “It was recorded during the day, business hours,” Morby says.

“I tracked the band live, with Swift helping me produce during overdubs, which took another week.”

While he considers this outing a love letter to city living, Morby says he doesn’t have to be in a city—or on the road—to start a song. “I can find inspiration in most anything,” he shares. “I’m always surprising myself with what inspires me to write a song. I get ideas as I write, and new ones occur as I work in the studio or

at practice. I write most of the time.”

His ultimate goal is to keep releasing quality records at a steady rate and to evolve as an artist. “I can now run faster and jump higher, metaphorically speaking,” he adds.

Morby also an impressive writer outside of composing lyrics. The liner notes and bio he contributed to the City Music package are full of witty turns of phrase and impressive poetic musings. Has he ever thought about writing a novel? “Short stories,” he replies.

human trafficking. Sometimes, we write songs about our friend getting drunk at a wedding.”

If anything, Piss Test have a definitive interactive totality, a quickness that harnesses the power of inclusion.

They’re a band you’d expect to see bringing down the neighborhood— and Piss Test do just that. They’re a Portland punk rock behemoth, and LPII is very much a Rip City record.

“LPII was written during the Obama administration,” Brooks explains.

“Which, by the way, had arguably as many solid punk releases as the Reagan ‘80s, but I digress. The inspiration to the songs is localized. It is very much a Portland record that documents real and imagined characters living in a changing city. Even ‘Arizona Cops’ is based on our drummer Rodrigo [Diaz] moving to Portland to escape the institutionalized racism of Tucson.”

Punk rock—like “fuck it, let’s rip this shit up” punk rock—is still insanely beautiful in the soul of Portland, Oregon’s Piss Test, a band with an aptitude and down to earth rawness similar to legends like Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, and the Germs. The group’s newest rager, LPII— released May 5 on Dirt Cult Records—is a dense ball of anger and freedom, as funny as it is absolute. It’s an honest work most of all, and the humor is worldly, open, and real.

PHOTO: ADARSHA BENJAMIN

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST ZACH BROOKS BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON “America has always been a racist country,” Brooks says. “We are currently at a place where the racism is so open that white people can’t ignore, gloss over, or make excuses for what people of color have been dealing with every day of their lives. The only people surprised by all this bullshit are white people.”

Piss Test exude that wholesome community-based ascension with

every mean and lean riff on LPII. They know when to let it breathe and when to stuff it down your throat. “Life in a state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” Brooks continues.

“Community is the foundation of human civilization. All that rugged individualism American mythos is horseshit.”

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BENT KNEE

Though they formed in 2009, many are just now discovering Boston’s Bent Knee—and “discovering” is the perfect word, since no one else sounds quite like they do. Yet, their sound seems like it is always in flux, like each album is the next step along the way. Land Animal—due out June 23 via Inside Out Music—feels more symphonic and more soulful, with a greater pop and hip hop bent; which is to say it expands further on everything that made the band’s last record, 2016’s Say So, so very great. Land Animal sounds like a cohesive chimera: an art-pop record that’s beautiful, artistic, and full of hooks.

Of the band’s continued sonic evolution, guitarist Ben Levin says, “We are always evolving as people and are trying to make music that is true to us in the present moment. So, if we are doing things right, each album should sound fresh and reflect a new set of experiences and ideas. Land Animal has a stronger soul and hip hop influence because we’ve been listening to that music a lot more in the past few years.”

“I love how creative hip hop production is and how many kinds of emotions are

FREE THROW

There’s a reason why Nashville is nicknamed Music City. While it evokes images of honky-tonks and smoky blues bars, its history and community have always been diverse. However, when Free Throw got their start, emo had a limited foothold in their local scene.

After sharing shows with area hardcore bands and touring relentlessly, they helped grow that niche, releasing a self-titled six-song EP in 2012 and their Lavender Town EP and debut full-length, Those Days Are Gone, in 2014.

Nearly three years later, Free Throw are now on the cusp of breaking through to emo’s forefront. For their sophomore album, Bear Your Mind— released on May 26—they’ve moved from Count Your Lucky Stars to Triple Crown Records, the same label that recently propelled the careers of Foxing, Tiny Moving Parts, and Sorority Noise. For a band who were once content playing basements for beers, it’s a considerable jump forward, and one that could see them

18 NEW NOISE

represented in the lyrics,” he continues.

“Hip hop can be heartbreaking and hilarious in the same line, and these days, it often features pretty unpredictable arrangements that work very naturally.

In this album, we wanted to focus on rhythms from Kendrick Lamar and D’Angelo, as well as minimalistic composers like Nik Bärtsch.”

Bent Knee know how to artfully showcase their intelligence without seeming like they’re boasting. Land Animal is intricate and complex, yet these feel like pop songs at heart. Levin’s songwriting philosophy explains why this is so. “I want the music to paint the lyrics in a way that helps the listener feel something special and true,” he explains.

“I like this quote by E.Y. Harburg: ‘Music makes you feel feelings; words make you think thoughts; songs make you feel thoughts.’ I think some songs might end up complex in that pursuit, but lyric painting is the name of the game.”

Land Animal struggles with the dichotomy of being sentient, sensitive beings while reconciling our lizard brains, our basic primal urges. This is often reflected in the drastic musical shifts, bursting out from a contemplative mood. So, what did Bent Knee want to talk about with this record? “You know, just a bunch of 2017 stuff,” Levin laughs.

gracing much bigger stages for the foreseeable future.

PHOTO: CHRIS ANDERSEN

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST BEN LEVIN BY NICHOLAS SENIOR “I feel like a cyborg with a virus. My phone is always on, even when I turn that bastard off! I just can’t stop looking at it!

Politics are very depressing, and I always follow the news on my phone. How much am I supposed to pay attention to be a good citizen without becoming a pile of mush? Am I racist? Who the hell are these people on my Facebook timeline, and why do I keep looking at them?

How many ‘like’s am I getting? When is it going to be my turn to get cancer?

Whenever I sit down to think these days, I’m always drifting in and out of different worlds and timelines. My body needs to catch up to my gadgets.”

Are there ways we can better ourselves and the world around us? “Individually, I think the best thing we can do is to educate ourselves and make sure that we check our sources, remain skeptical but open-minded, and think about how our actions affect people besides ourselves,” Levin concludes. “Even though the rapid change in technology offers lots of challenges for us, I think it’s ultimately one of our best hopes.”

PHOTO: NICK KARP

“After we put out the first EP on Bandcamp, we started to get more recognition outside of Nashville,” vocalist and guitarist Cory Castro explains. “The need to tour arose, and we were getting offers to go play places. [...] Our other guitar player, Larry [Warner], looked at me and was like, ‘Dude, we need to tour.’ Now, here we are, three and a half, four years later.”

Whether Free Throw successfully ascend to emo’s upper echelons remains to be seen. However, the pieces appear lined up for big things to come. Like several of their new labelmates, they’ve made strides in terms of creative and emotional maturity while making the larger label leap. According to Castro, the band aimed to make Bear Your Mind feel anthemic, aiming for massive hooks and life-affirming energy.

While Those Days Are Gone was inspired by a bad breakup, Bear Your Mind sees Castro turn his focus inward. Rather than blaming another person for past transgressions, he opts for self-reflection, coming to terms with his past and present self. Its cover

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST CORY CASTRO BY BEN SAILER art—a headless mannequin shouldering a vintage monitor—is symbolic of carrying one’s own burdens. “If you put both records together, they tell the story of love lost, and coping and learning to love yourself in general,” Castro says. “The new record starts off talking about how I thought it was that relationship’s fault that I have so many problems, and I realized throughout the record it’s not. There’s a lot more that goes into a person than one event.”

According to Castro, aside from releasing a potential breakout record, it

seems little else has changed. At 29, his goals for the band have shifted from getting on the road to being able to quit his day job. But the band’s definition of success has remained the same: playing music for anyone who will listen.

Now that they are backed with more resources, though, there is at least one touring luxury Free Throw are ready to indulge in. “We have better access to showers now,” Castro laughs.

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BROKEN HOPE

Death metal pioneers Broken Hope churned out album after album of ultra brutal, crushingly heavy music throughout the ‘90s, but in the early 2000s, a lack of record label support and dysfunctional band member relationships led to their demise. After a decade of silence, Broken Hope reunited for a tour with Obituary in 2012, then signed with Century Media Records a year later to release their first album in over a decade, Omen of Disease.

Now, the band have returned with their most polished material to date, Mutilated and Assimilated, out June 23.

The new album tackles a different set of themes than previous Broken Hope albums, acting as the band’s tribute to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror movie, “The Thing.” Although the band have strayed from writing about real life horror and into the fiction realm before, Mutilated and Assimilated is their first full-fledged dedication to a horror classic. “The horror movie tributes have been few and far between,” founding

BLOODCLOT

For as long as rock n’ roll has been a thing, members from multiple bands forming one “super” band has been a part of its DNA. In today’s tour-for-survival landscape, the practice has grown so popular that people hardly bat an eye anymore. Innumerable are the grandiose press releases informing the world of the next great congregation of big shots from bands you’ve heard of coming together to make something cool.

As commonplace as these collaborations have become, every once in a while, a really eye-catching lineup will be announced, giving fans something to get seriously excited about.

They’re called Bloodclot.

Featuring vocalist John Joseph of CroMags; guitarist Todd Youth, formerly of Murphy’s Law, Warzone, and Danzig; and Queens Of The Stone Age alums, bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Joey Castillo, the band’s pedigree is intriguing—and a bit confusing. That is, until one hears the fiery bombast that encompasses their Metal Blade Records debut, Up In Arms, out July 14.

20 NEW NOISE

guitarist and lyricist Jeremy Wagner says, “but this time around, I think we did the movie a real honor and horror fans and ‘The Thing’ fans will love it.”

After penning the lyrics to the title track, Wagner presented them to the rest of the band and explained it was his tribute to “The Thing.” The other band members instantly loved the title and accompanying lyrics, spawning the idea to create an entire album on the topic. “I didn’t plan on it to be a title track at all,” Wagner says. “That was not part of my vision, I was just writing lyrics.”

When it came time to record the new record, Broken Hope had a much easier time compared to previous albums due to working in Wagner’s new home studio. “Having that luxury of having that great studio in my house just put the level of comfort at an all-time high,” he says. “Everyone was relaxed. It’s the same place we rehearse as well, where we wrote the album, so the studio itself is like a home to the band, and the environment’s real healthy and comfy.

At the end, when we finished it, we came out with a really killer album that really embodies a really healthy and positive Broken Hope vibe—if there is such a thing.”

Despite looking a bit odd on paper, Bloodclot’s motley crew have much more in common than one might think.

“Everybody that’s in this band has deep roots in punk rock and hardcore since the early ‘80s,” Joseph explains. “Joey was in L.A.’s Wasted Youth, Todd played in Agnostic Front when he was 12 years old in 1980-whatever the fuck. Nick Oliveri’s been in a bunch of bands—as a matter of fact, if you watch the CroMags’ ‘We Gotta Know’ video where we’re playing the arena, at the beginning, this dude with long blonde hair runs in and throws his hands up in the air while wearing a Cro-Mags shirt. That’s Nick Oliveri. So, everybody has deep roots in punk and hardcore.”

Though the band didn’t technically form until 2016, the catalyst for their formation arrived way back in the early ‘90s, when Joseph asked Youth to fill in on guitar for a Cro-Mags show. “He was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been writing an album that I wanted to write for you to put vocals to,’” Joseph recalls. “Todd is down with the Bad Brains, Todd played in Motörhead, Discharge—he’s done everything. He knows what shit is gonna make me go crazy.”

After getting together with Youth to complete work on a demo they recorded in Los Angeles and shop it around to

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST JEREMY WAGNER BY JOE SMITH-ENGELHARDT Prior to the writing process, Wagner acquired a chunk of late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s guitar collection through an auction put together by Hanneman’s wife and ESP guitars.

Wagner explains that Hanneman played a huge role in inspiring him to become a lyricist and guitarist, and he feels using the guitars in Broken Hope honors Hanneman’s legacy. “My wanting to acquire his stuff was two parts,” he shares. “One, some of the guitars that he had—call it the teenager in me, but I grew up with some of them, some which are legendary like that punk rock Jackson

he had. Secondly, the guitars that Jeff played, they’re actually sort of the same aesthetic as far as body shape style, an ESP guitar, pickups, and everything else that I’ve always played. It wasn’t really about me being a collector and ‘I’m going to have Jeff Hanneman’s guitars,’ like, I could really play these guitars. I always have this strong mission statement that these guitars are made to be played.”

PHOTO: RICK RODNEY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JON JOSEPH BY BRANDON RINGO several labels, Joseph began looking for a bassist and drummer.

During the recruiting process, his requirements were quite simple.

“Everybody that’s in this band, I ask them one question,” he says. “‘Is this your priority?’ This takes precedence over everything else. Whether it be Cro-Mags or whatever bands motherfuckers are in, Bloodclot has gotta take precedence. If that’s what it is, sign on the dotted line, and let’s get this done.”

Once Oliveri and Castillo were on the team, the band got together to start the

recording process for Up In Arms. It turned out to be one of the most positive experiences of Joseph’s career. “It’s a fuckin’ blast! That’s what music’s supposed to be,” he declares. “It’s not supposed to be this drama and soap opera bullshit. That shit sucks. I don’t wanna play music if that’s who I’m gonna be playing with. I don’t care how much money is gonna be involved.”

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ave you seen The Lillingtons lately? The band have been circulating again over the last few years, but after an 11-year freeze, the slow leak of clues leading up to their new EP, Project 313, felt reminiscent of classic Lillingtons ambiguity.

It started with a Red Scare Industries Instagram post announcing the band were in the studio recording, followed by a mock found footage video featuring a snippet of music. Finally, the official announcement came in April, and in mid-May, a video for the song “Rubber Room” was released.

If this is any indication of what to expect, this record—released June 9—will have fans forgetting that The Lillingtons ever stepped away.

To be fair, it’s hard to fit in practices with everyone living in different states.

“We played a few reunion shows, and we liked doing that, but after so long, we felt like we were becoming a copy of ourselves,” vocalist and guitarist Kody Templeman says. “We needed to write new songs. We weren’t being fair to ourselves or our fans by rehashing all the old stuff over and over again.”

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“We talked about writing songs for several years, but it was always when we were hanging out drinking,” he continues. “When we eventually shifted to hanging out and writing tunes instead, things started to come together quickly. Everything kind of snowballed from there: song ideas, song titles, and trying to do different stuff musically than we had done before. Basically, the same thing we did when we went from [1996’s] Shit Out of Luck era to [1999’s] Death By Television.”

Other projects arose while the band were separated by distance—with Templeman playing in Teenage Bottlerocket and drummer Tim O’Hara in Stabbed In Back—but certain band dynamics are irreplaceable. “Teenage Bottlerocket are my family, and they’re like family to the other guys too,” Templeman explains. “We’ve all been doing this stuff for a really long time, and you forge relationships and grow up doing this stuff together, but there’s a process that [bassist] Cory [Laurence] and I have of writing songs that just seems familiar. We brainstorm off each other and get way too stoked on shit.”

The band’s catalog does indeed reek of good old creative riffing and their collective acerbic nature. “All of us have a very dark and sarcastic sense of humor that plays off of one another,” Templeman adds. “Ask Toby [Jeg] from Red Scare about it. He’ll text us a question, and there is usually 80 or so replies before he finally gets a halfassed answer. That’s typical when dealing with us.”

This attitude may explain why The Lillingtons’ undertakings have always seemed a bit cryptic, skirting directness for the sheer fuckery and humor of it. Templeman says it also has to do with the history of music media itself. “When we got into music, especially punk rock, there wasn’t a lot of access to bands like there is now with the internet,” he recalls. “Before all of that, you had to let the music do the talking and interpret what you wanted from that. Even more so with punk rock stuff, ‘cause no one was covering it, and if they were, we sure as shit weren’t hearing about it in Wyoming. We were lucky and more than happy to just get our hands on the music. The lack of knowledge created

a special mystique that added to that excitement, and all of that is dead now. Also, Cory and I aren’t much for talking, and we suck at interviews.”

The Lillingtons’ most recent musical morsels have been doled out like enticing clues in the fashion of that mystique. The found footage video immediately had fans speculating about Project 313’s theme. “There’s a theme going on there, but that’s for the listener to discover,” Templeman says. “It’s definitely more subtle than the sci-fi theme of Death By Televsion, but it’s definitely there.”

Whether it’s Area 51 or rubber rooms, it’s now up to fans to solve the mystery of Project 313. Have a listen to prep for FEST 16 and anywhere else The Lillingtons may pop up to play. “There are still a lot of people who haven’t seen us live, and it will be fun to play some new songs, so we will definitely be playing out more,” Templeman confirms. “We also discussed staying away from bigger festival type shows and doing smaller venues. We like that aesthetic personally, as fans, and we want to try to make it more of a show than just a band playing their set.”

Their plans past that? “The main focus is to have something out before we do anymore shows, so when that happens, we will start planning things,” he says. “Yes, it will happen.

When and where has yet to be determined…”

t’s been almost 25 years since Boston shoegaze greats, Swirlies, put out their groundbreaking debut, Blonder Tongue Audio Baton, an album that helped lay the foundation the genre would build upon.

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Vocalist and guitarist Damon Tutunjian had no idea if anyone would care when the band decided to rerelease the LP on vinyl. “It was actually rereleased by our old label, TAANG! Records, in October 2016,” he says. “We didn’t know how much interest there would be in the record, then or now. It’s all been a surprise. For the rerelease, we tried to work with the label to make the art almost exactly the same as the original. We made a new poster to accompany the LP, va schematic that explains some of the original collage art.”

The band have plans to revisit other albums as well, hoping to

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self-release the first vinyl edition of 2003’s Cats of the Wild: Volume 2. “We’re not sure what our old label plans to do with our older recordings—which they own, at least until the end of civilization,” Tutunjian adds. “Communication is not the best with them.”

Swirlies surprised many in 2015 by taking on a two-week tour of the East Coast. Though they never officially broke up, the band’s last proper studio album was in 2003, and their touring schedule has been sporadic at best. “The geographical barriers make it hard, as does our penchant for only playing in odd-numbered years,” Tutunjian explains. “At this point, we don’t know how to do it any other way. See you in 2019, Texas!”

It’s been almost 15 years since they last played dates on the West Coast, but that’s about to change in August. Their last West

Coast shows were in 2003 with the Washington D.C. indie rockers in Lilys. “We’ve wanted to play out on the West Coast for a long while, but our members are spread out all over the East Coast, and I live in Sweden,” Tutunjian says. “We also have families and regular jobs to attend to, not to mention ostrich preserves to establish. We’re just fortunate that it’s working out this time—nice, enthusiastic people are encouraging us and helping us out, just like in the earliest days. Some of them are the same people from back then, like [agent] Mahmood [Shaikh] from Flowerbooking.”

Just to keep folks guessing, Swirlies put out a new song, “Fantastic Trumpets Forever,” in July of 2016, releasing the track on flexi disc via Joyful Noise Recordings.

However, another full album may take some time. “We are slow to record and slower to write,” Tu-

tunjian admits. “Lately, I’ve been heavily involved [in] producing and recording a solo artist, Stella Lugosi, in Sweden, which has taken some focus off recording new Swirlies material. But we are working to release more songs in the near future, including a new version of [‘Fantastic Trumpets Forever’]—but this time, it won’t be on flexi disc.”

So, what’s next for Swirlies after their shows in August? “Swimming in the Pacific Ocean, feeling the hot desert wind, seeing majestic redwood forests and ground squirrels shaking their bushy tails—we hope all of these things will spur us back into making new things,” Tutunjian says. “How could it not?”

new albums from topshelf records: Ratboys GN

CD / LP / CS /digital - June 30

Chicago’s Ratboys continue their trend of effortlessly creating country-inspired indie rock songs with an airy, leisurely charm.

For Fans of: Pinegrove, Rilo Kiley, The Weakerthans, Ben Kweller, Feist, Andy Shauf.

“The sumptuous licks of guitar and Steiner's honeyed vocals tell an intimate story.” -FADER “Rocks all the the way through.” -NPR

tricot 3

CD / LP / CS /digital - out now

Captivating guitar interplay and stop-and-start percussion abound amidst complex polyrhythms on the Kyoto, Japan three-piece’s energetic third album.

For Fans of: Chon, Hella, Cibo Matto, Marnie Stern, TTNG, Metric. “the nonstop time-signature shifts and torrid playing that animate their tricky pop is the work of a band in its own lane.” -Rolling Stone

“The greatest trio on Earth” -Noisey

Us and Us Only Full Flower

CD / LP / CS /digital - July 7

Featuring members of Teen Suicide, Us and Us Only expertly employ layered harmonies and orchestral arrangements over twelve emotionally charged and sonically concise tracks.

For Fans of: Wolf Parade, Bombay Bicycle Club, Vampire Weekend,

also available: No Vacation

People Like You

Summer Break Singles

Verse

7” / CS /digital

July 28

out now

CD / LP / CS /digital

additional new titles coming soon from: Special Explosion & Queen Moo

tour dates, merch & info: topshelfrecords.com

PHOTO: KATHLEEN KENNEDY

W

ith all the Satanism and corpse paint and ritual-esque solemnity that often goes into it, black metal can come off as kind of cartoonish to outsiders. But to the fans who truly get it, black metal is no laughing matter.

Upon first encountering their name, many will be tempted to think that Dallas, Texas-based black metal band Tyrannosorceress are trying to signal that they don’t take themselves too seriously. After all, who doesn’t love T. Rexes, sorcery, and portmanteaus? “What a delightfully wacky name,” one might think. It may even make them more interested

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in checking out the band, no?

But those unfortunate souls who consider Tyrannosorceress to be anything less than ardent black metal cultists are dead fucking wrong.

“Tyrannosorceress is the Tyrant Sorceress. She is the destructive spirit that awakens the sleeping beast in man, the initiator who sparks the flame of self-illumination, opening the path to become God,” explains vocalist Zac Christian— no pun intended, presumably.

“She is the adversary, in opposition to the God of slaves, the devouress of the sacred lamb, the sheep, those who are servants to false light. You will find her by dream and in flesh and may know her by many names: as

Jahi, Lilith, Hekate, Kali. She is of their meaningless praise— the witch, the dark mother, the choose not to dig deeper, withwhore, liberator of true will.” in and without themselves, to find the true meanings.”

In true black metal fashion, the band do not give one sin- The other purpose? “Luring in gle shit what anyone thinks those who may only dig deepabout their name or their mu- er past the surface based on sic. “We are not concerned the name alone,” he says. “The with others’ perception of our amount of attention, both work,” Christian says. “The good and bad, that the name name was chosen with intent.” Tyrannosorceress has attracted is only an affirmation of The band’s name has a twofold its purpose and power. Anypurpose, he explains. One is “to one who calls into question weed out the false elite, the peo- the seriousness of our work ple of the lie,” Christian says. would be foolish to do so.”

“Those who, out of their own innate weakness—in fear of being The fearsome Tyrannosorsubject to judgement by others, ceress will release their debut bound by the chains of arbitrary album, Shattering Light’s Crecommandments, which dictate ation, through Tofu Carnage what is and what is not worthy Records on June 23.

PHOTO: NEGAKINU

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eavy metal and horror films go together like puppies and MilkBones. Due in large part to the admiration for fantasy and the macabre so firmly entrenched in both mediums, it isn’t very surprising when the two are mashed together.

Sadly, this mishmash from the great beyond often falls into the trap of cheesiness. Ranking alongside the likes of King Diamond as some of the most prolific purveyors of lactose intolerant “black metal theatre” are Dutch powerhouse Carach Angren.

Since the beginning, Carach Angren have made a name for themselves with grandiose concept albums about ghosts, urban legends, and a particularly chilling retelling of “Hansel and Gretel.” Now, with Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten—out June 16 on Season Of Mist—the band have upped their game significantly.

Like on their past albums, the band continue their ambitious approach to storytelling, but also keep their songs grounded and simple. “It is again a big overarching concept, but each song also can stand on its own. I think that’s the beauty of this record, similar to what we have done on [2012’s] Where

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the Corpses Sink Forever,” keyboardist Ardek claims. “For fans that want to get into the story, there is a lot to discover. For fans who are not into that per se, they can just bang their heads along in the mosh pit. We really like this approach. The story should contribute to the music, and the music should contribute to the story.”

In a semi-true-to-life example of “no rest for the wicked,” the genesis of Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten came swiftly after the completion of the band’s aforementioned “Hansel and Gretel”-themed concept album. “I began writing the first song structures already back in 2014, after recording This Is No Fairytale,” Ardek confirms.

“The good thing about this is that I was able to go back and forth with it during the busy touring schedule around the globe. The album got more into shape as [vocalist and guitarist] Seregor and I looked more into ideas for individual stories. He once told me about the tale for ‘Charles Francis Coghlan,’ and that immediately drew images in my mind.”

Coghlan was an Anglo-Irish actor and playwright who died in 1899, after which his metal casket was swept away in the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

Legend has it that the coffin endured

a miraculous seven-year, 2,000-mile journey before washing up on the shore of his birthplace, Prince Edward Island.

“We always had the wish to make the individual stories into a grand story again,” Ardek adds. “When we finished the music and Seregor came up with the lyrics for ‘Charlie,’ we used this as the key element in building the story. The girl introduced in this song is said to have played with a Ouija board and has therefore summoned entities telling their tales throughout the album. In the last song, we return to her and learn what really has happened. A grand clue is revealed, and you the listener even finds him [or] herself part of the story.”

While the band’s lyrical approach was familiar, they tried to push the boundaries of their music further.

“For this album, we had an urge to create more melodies, catchy parts, and choruses again, apart from telling a compelling horror story,” Ardek shares. “This hunger was created by the approach we had in creating This Is No Fairytale. With that album, we had more of a ‘terror’ approach in telling the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’

in a gruesome, realistic way. There was almost nothing left to the imagination, and musically, we took a very dark and complex approach. We always try new things and keep variation going; that is why you see us change course a bit on every album. We deserve this, and the listener also deserves a fresh Carach Angren, so to speak.”

Another key element that allows Carach Angren to stand out like a sore, mutated thumb amongst their peers is their albums’ incredible production value, which almost serves as an instrument unto itself.

“With some songs, already from the composition process, we paid attention to a particular balance among the instruments and effects,” Ardek explains. “You can clearly hear this in the song ‘Charlie.’ There are a lot of freaky sounds interacting with each other, painting this scary demonic scenery. Furthermore, we worked again with Peter Tägtgren, who outdid himself once again. He was able to make the album sound inyour-face and still crystal clear. We are incredibly happy with how it turned out.”

Removed from the verbosity of a typical concept album, Carach Angren have managed to add a unique twist to their story that begs for multiple listens. “The listener becomes part of the story as well; there is even a little puzzle hidden in one of the lyrics,” Ardek admits. “I would like fans to find stuff out themselves to not ruin surprises. We are very proud of it, and can’t wait to hear all the responses and tour the album!”

PHOTO: JAMES ALVAREZ

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tlanta’s The Coathangers have really grown into something special over the course of their decade-plus existence. Their garage-y, surf-y, melodic and menacing punk continues to impress, and their latest EP, Parasite—due out June 30 via Suicide Squeeze—continues their hot streak.

Parasite is a real treat to listen to; it sounds like a combination of all The Coathangers’ previous albums into a diverse yet cohesive, punchy little EP. No two Coathangers releases sound the same, yet there is always a certain amount of vitriol and humor that adds to the group’s charm. Barely a year after their excellent—and exceptionally melodic—full-length, Nosebleed Weekend, The Coathangers felt the need to vent and embrace the angst, making for a delightfully menacing record.

Guitarist Crook Kid Coathanger states that this EP was something they just had

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to get out of their system. “We wanted to make something reflective of how we were feeling at the time,” she explains. “We were pissed and confused and excited to be writing new material! I was pumped about screaming a song again!”

“There were a bunch of personal matters that really ticked me off late last year,” she adds. “I was very ready to write at the time, ready to vent! I’m glad it sounds menacing—it’s meant to!”

Parasite is definitely a bit more venomous and vulgar than Nosebleed Weekend.

The band sound like they’re out for blood. “Captain’s Dead” is a poppy masterpiece, but it’s dripping with malice.

Hell, even the rerecorded alternate version of “Down Down”—originally from their previous LP—feels more eerie.

Parasite vents a certain frustration with the world, however, The Coathangers are not focusing on political punk ditties just yet. That said, the title track

and “Captain’s Dead” do sound like not-so-veiled screeds about a certain orange-hued manbaby. The guitarist laughs, “Well, that’s honestly a coincidence. ‘Captain’s Dead’ is written about an entirely different mini-manchild, but sadly, it does fit with the ‘mango Mussolini’ running our country—I can’t take credit for that one, heard it on Canadian radio. We hardly ever write blatantly political songs.”

“The same [goes for] ‘Parasite,’” she expands. “It’s about having actual intestinal parasites. However, the song is also about parasitic people and relationships, which leads us right back to Trump.”

As members of the Atlanta scene and generally socially conscious individuals, what does community mean to The Coathangers? “Community is everything—being part of the team, family is everything. How you treat others is everything,” Crook Kid says. “We came

from a supportive, close-knit Atlanta music scene, and that’s how we’ve always approached the ‘business’ of music. Don’t get me wrong, we have had our fair share of internal struggle, but the bond and commitment to each other’s well-being has always been top priority. We are sisters, and those who are on our team are family as well. We build together; it just makes sense.”

It’s clear that The Coathangers’ close relationship and comfort with each other’s artistic ability have created a fruitful, energized, and powerful group, and Parasite furthers their mission to craft excellent, hooky, rancorous rock.

THE WHITE NOISE NEW ALBUM ‘AM/PM’ OUT JUNE 23

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PHOTO: MITCHELL WOJCIK

he Chicago-based indie rock trio, Pet Symmetry, consists of vocalist and bassist Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It., guitarist Erik Czaja of Dowsing, and drummer Marcus Nuccio of What Gives, and formerly of Dowsing.

While all three musicians are better known for their full-time projects, Pet Symmetry have gained a reputation for their upbeat and lighthearted spirit, especially after their 2015 debut LP, Pet Hounds.

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Pet Symmetry began in an unconventional way. While most bands form from long-term friendships, Pet Symmetry started playing together in 2012 after Weiss, Czaja, and Nuccio met in Chicago—a city known for its DIY music scene— where all three had been playing for a handful of years. Supporting each other’s bands within their community spawned a new undertaking,

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featured on their previous releases, but have also incorporated more of the heartfelt tones and fierce punk hooks characteristic to their other endeavors.

one that would have never happened otherwise.

“Erik and I are both born and raised in New Jersey, but it took living here independently of each other and then crossing paths to become friends and creative partners,” Weiss says. “Everything we have, we owe to that. And that’s really special, because we are all making great art, and we wouldn’t be doing that had we not been able to meet and extend ourselves and share ideas with each other.”

Although Pet Symmetry began as an outlet to escape the pressures precipitated by the members’ main gigs, the band progressed into a more serious venture. This is especially evident on their second fulllength, Vision, released May 26 via Polyvinyl Records. They returned with the same playful snarkiness

Pet Symmetry’s three members have also taken the band’s positive mindset and applied it to their full-time projects, allowing them to grow as musicians and songwriters.

“After being together for so long, what I’ve taken from Pet Symmetry is that I can write better songs, and I should push myself to do more of that,” Czaja says. “I’ve learned that experimenting is good and others’ input is good. I’ve learned how to be a better songwriter and partner in music. I don’t weigh myself down with what is ‘good,’ which used to plague me. Now, I don’t stress about that, and I enjoy writing more because of that.”

Like his bandmate, Weiss has enlisted that optimism and applied it to the writing process for Into It. Over It., attempting to alleviate some of the pressure he has put on himself and adopt the carefree approach that so lovingly defines Pet Symmetry. “This band is the most fun I’ve ever had—and I mean that,” he says. “Into It. Over It. is a passion project of mine, and it’s something that’s really important to me.

I take it very seriously, so there is a lot of pressure and overanalyzing that comes along with it. With Pet Symmetry, we all have the same mindset. We all want to accomplish

the same thing. If we don’t achieve something, it doesn’t feel like we failed.”

This buoyant outlook is a sign of maturity. Weiss and his bandmates have been able to expand as musicians because of their cheerful attitude, but growing more serious about their music doesn’t only entail improving the quality and content of their songs—it also means presenting the band in a similar way. “Being able to present the band in a proper fashion is the next step,” Weiss says. “We want to do more than just five shows a year and take a step forward. That’s the biggest goal at this point. We are a real band, and we take it seriously.

We are ready to start pursuing it with more effort than we have been before, and we are excited about doing it.”

While Pet Symmetry are making a significant push to gain recognition on the same level as Into It. Over It. and Dowsing, they haven’t completely traded in their desire to amuse themselves with quirky lyrical content and silly wordplay—and fans will be happy to know that part of Pet Symmetry will never dissolve. “Ultimately, the goofy undertone is something that will always exist, and that’s because of who we are as people,” Weiss assures. “It gives us a lot of joy, it’s therapeutic, and it’s something we can always look forward to.”

PHOTOS: KELSEY HALL

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n Deep Dream, the debut album from the Nashville grunge punk pop trio, Daddy Issues, released May 17 by Infinity Cat Recordings, the group transform from a band learning to play their instruments to a straight-up punk powerhouse. Vocalist and guitarist Jenna Moynihan, drummer Emily Maxwell, and bassist Jenna Mitchell spent the last two years developing a fuzzy, grungy punk sound that ventures lightyears from their 2015 EP, Can We Still Hang, recorded only months after they first started playing together.

“We definitely took our time and wanted to perfect things that we didn’t take the time to really pay attention to on Can We Still Hang,” Moynihan says. “It was our first time recording in general and all together. We didn’t know what we were doing, and it was quick. This time, we wanted it to sound perfect.”

Deep Dream’s sludgy first single, “In Your Head,” starts with the

line, “Fuck you forever / I said leaving”—an excellent putdown for any deserving party—while other songs stand out like the raging, sunny rocker, “Lemon.” There are also poignant moments like the arresting “I’m Not,” which details sexual abuse and assault.

In addition to these originals, the album includes a rendition of Don Henley’s 1984 hit, “The Boys of Summer.” It’s recast as a downtempo, slow-burn power ballad. “We really liked it, and when it came time to record, we did not have any more finished, full-band songs,” Maxwell says of the inspiration behind the cover.

Cig and Tacocat, bands Maxwell says they’ve drawn inspiration from. “I think it’s easy for us to spend time with likeminded people,” she says. “The cool thing about touring with them is helping them spread their message and seeing the reaction of the crowd, seeing who is in the crowd, and knowing that those people—especially young women—are coming to the show and hearing that it’s OK to be

yourself and say how you feel and not back down from that.”

With the release of Deep Dream, Daddy Issues are ready to get back on the road. “We’re going to do more touring,” Mitchell says. “We have a few summer dates booked right now. We’re hoping to see a lot of people again this year, hug a lot of people, and pet a lot of dogs.”

The band say that their producer, Infinity Cat label head and JEFF The Brotherhood member Jake Orrall, enjoyed the song, because it was completely new to him. “He’d never heard any versions of it before!” Moynihan says. “We kept asking him questions, and he didn’t know what we were talking about.”

Daddy Issues have been developing their chops on the road with Diet

PHOTO: KELSEY HALL

NEW NOISE 35

PHOTO: DUSTIN CONDREN

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lgiers make protest music that aims at the heart of the rising tide of nationalism currently threating the world. Their aggressive wail of distorted guitars, dark samples, grime, industrial nose, and frenetic drumming is experienced on a visceral level, making the messages they convey about race and class in American impossible to ignore.

“We didn’t sit down and say, ‘Let’s do an industrial funk rock record,” guitarist Lee Tesche says. “We all grew up listening to lots of different music: hip hop, Afrobeat, punk, post-punk, indie rock, even classical music. Then, you put ‘em all into a blender and, when you have four sets of ears and four different minds listening, that’s about as deliberate as it gets.”

Tesche, vocalist and guitarist Franklin James Fisher, and bassist Ryan Mahan grew up together in Atlanta and kept in touch after moving away to college—Fisher to New York, Tesche and Mahan to London.

“Around 2011, we started writing songs by file swapping,” Fisher says. Since they all play several instruments, the files were saturated with music.

“Everybody contributed everything they had. There are a lot of ideas competing for space and, as the song evolves, it gets pared down.”

The band liked the dense, richly layered sound they’d put together, but weren’t sure it would translate in a live setting.

“We took the stage at Corsica Studios in London in 2014 with a lot of trepidation,” Tesche says. “When the first couple of notes came out of the amps on the first song, we all said, ‘Yeah!

This is good.’”

The album was a hit, and Algiers toured North America and Europe before starting work on The Underside of Power, due for release by Matador on June 23. The songs were written between Brexit in 2016 and Trump’s inauguration in January of 2017. “When Obama was elected, I thought it was going to lead to a massive coming out party for the right wing crypto fascists,” Fisher says. That unfortunate premonition came true, making the band even more determined to up the ante on their second album. “We’re talking about the disposed and disenfranchised,” he adds. “We identify with those populations and try to represent their voices in what we do.

The Underside of Power was written and recorded in the studio and is even denser and more complex than the band’s debut—think James Brown fronting Suicide or Nine Inch Nails. Will that intensity translate to their live shows? “We’re about to find out,” Tesche says.

“Songs are living creatures, so The band’s debut self-titled al- you document their lives as you bum was written before they play them live. They’ll become had a record deal, but making a more dense or get stripped back statement was more important more. It will vary on a night-tothan financial success. “We’re night basis, which is very excitfrom Atlanta,” Fisher says, “so ing for us as a band and musiwe wanted to take into account cians.” the conflicting histories of the American South. It’s fair to say we decided to be consciously political.” The record was eventually released via Matador Records in June of 2015, after the addition of drummer Matt Tong, formerly of Bloc Party.

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PHOTO: ESTER SEGARRA

C

alifornia’s Beastmaker drench their audio with buckets of blood. Inducing terror and vertigo, heavy Sabbathian riffs wave repeatedly. Accolades saturated Beastmaker’s impressive debut LP, Lusus Naturae, after its release in March 2016. One year later, the band strengthen their musical depth with Inside the Skull, released via Rise Above Records on May 19. This album punishes with fuller, heavier riffs and more a developed sound. The vocals, the artwork, the nefarious lyrics—these elements coalesce to depict 10 terrifying tales.

Vocalist and guitarist Trevor William Church laments that in the band’s hometown of Fresno, “people don’t really go to shows,” but exudes positivity about Beastmaker’s opportunity to tour with Zakk Sabbath—Zakk Wylde’s Black Sabbath cover band—after Inside the Skull’s release. Church is a man with extensive vision, creatively and sonically. He has sought—and located—his community, not in his immediate surroundings, but through music itself, finding kin in Rise Above owner Lee Dorrian and a legion of horror film and doom metal fans.

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Church’s ability to weave atmosphere within gothic stories has earned many fans’ and critics’ adoration.

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO WRITE A SOFT SONG.” Inside the Skull both follows the Beastmaker formula and pushes it. “When our debut came out, I had these songs written, so they are from that era of Beastmaker,” Church explains. The difference, he says, is in the myriad “trials and tribulations” they have endured since Lusus Naturae’s release. Hindsight has incited a new approach to recording. “We learned a few things and experimented a lot more on Inside the Skull,” Church notes, describing how their production adjustments yielded “a bigger sound.”

Church attributes the execution and refinement to focus and persistence. “On Lusus Naturae, I did one guitar take,” he elaborates. “[For Inside the Skull], I used two different amps, four different guitars.

I did four tracks—which may be overkill in retrospect.” He further divulges his drive to indulge, adding, “One of my amps has these settings where I could change everything about the whole gain stage.

And then, we did the same with the bass.

We did make it bigger and heavier by adding to it. So, maybe that is [the reason for] the ‘heavier’ sound. I mean, I don’t even know how to write a soft song.”

Church’s other motivation is his desire to deliver a better album, and his excitement about the final product is palpable.

Church relishes in where Beastmaker’s music has brought him and the people who are connecting with it.

Another point of improvement on Inside the Skull is Beastmaker’s gathering of guests, including Johanna Sadonis of The Oath and Lucifer. “We hit it off with her while listening to Blood Ceremony in Germany,” Church recalls. “Me and [drummer] Andy [Saldate] wanted her to sing on a song. We had been into Lucifer quite a bit. I just asked her, and she said sure. We ended up picking two songs out for her. It’s weird, because now, after I hear those songs, she filled the gaps. I

think I should have had her sing on every song—but we pull it off live. There is no issue there.”

“We also have Nate [Abasolo] from Salem’s Pot on ‘Sick Sick Demon,’” Church adds. “We are bringing back having the homies play on your album from our punk rock days. We’re bringing that into what we do: friends coming in and singing backups and doing chants, incorporating guest musicians. As a trio, I feel that’s the way for us to grow—because we have no intention of leaving the horror genre.

That’s permanent.”

October will bring another European tour, but in the meantime, Church intends to focus even more intensely on their third release. “This summer will be spent planning for the next album,” he says. “We will get our preproduction going, figuring out our tones. Then, winter will be mixing and mastering the next album,” he notes, referencing his aversion to touring in the cold.

movie centers on Berkeley’s burgeoning punk rock scene as it crawled out of the surrounding communities and eventually exploded out of 924 Gilman Street, the nonprofit music space best described to the unaware as what a punk club ends up looking like when it’s founded by hippies.

O

n October 26, 2013, Corbett Redford was at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, California. Foxboro Hut Tubs were about to take the stage for a secret show in front of a packed, sweaty room of a few hundred, and Corbett had some big news to share. “That was the day!” he recalls. “If it wasn’t my first day, it was the first week that I was there [on the job].”

The inadvertent birth of “Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk” began when Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong went on the hunt for video footage from an early ‘90s backyard party in Oakland that included Fuel, Juke, and Green Day. Enter Redford—aptly dubbed “The Punk Whisperer” by his wife—who not only tracked down the footage, but also packaged it all onto one disc and delivered it to Armstrong.

Redford remembers the frontman’s reaction: “‘Holy crap, this is amazing!

We’re trying to do a movie about our early years, do you know anyone that could do it?’” The next day, Redford was starting work on his first feature-length documentary.

“I think a lot of punks, they rail against hippies, but it’s different here,” Redford says. “One of the reasons Gilman has flourished is because of that inviting, supportive culture.” He notes that Tim Yohannan, the guy who started Maximumrocknroll and founded Gilman, “decided he was going to put this thing together as an antidote to the violence of hardcore and the rise of the nationalist skinhead movement that was going on in the ‘80s, and [he] said there was going to be some rules.” Those rules—which have since been expanded to notably include “no asshole behavior”—remain indelibly stenciled at the entrance to Gilman.

For those who grew up in ‘80s punk culture pretty much anywhere else in the world, 924 Gilman was an oddity.

But sandwiched between the art-punk scene in San Francisco and the bastion of free speech up the road at U.C. Berkeley, Gilman was the perfect catalyst for the East Bay punk scene that eventually spat out the likes of Green Day, Rancid, AFI, and hundreds of other bands. One could literally spend hours reading through the list of bands who have graced the Gilman stage, which is proudly pasted on the walls.

As Redford embarked on what would become an ever-more daunting task, he was backed by what he describes as “excited and supportive producers” who were more likely to fire off middle-of-the-night texts with suggestions for interviews than they were to try to guide the narrative. That said, Billie Joe

Originally intending to cover Green Day’s early years, the project quickly grew as additional footage started to roll in. “That’s when all hell broke loose,” Redford recalls. All told, three years of production netted over 500 hours of footage from over 185 interviews and a collection of over 35,000 event flyers and archive photos—including pictures from the first-ever Gilman show—and curated a footage library of over 500 vintage live shows, including Operation Ivy practice footage courtesy of Tim Armstrong’s mother. Much of this stuff has never seen the light of day—until now.

Starting as “East Bay By the Punks, For the Punks, About the Punks” as a nod to the zine Absolutely Zippo, the title of the movie eventually changed to “Turn It Around” after the 1987 Maximumrocknroll compilation created by Lookout! Records founder, David Hayes. The

Armstrong did set forth three rules to follow: 1. Include diverse voices. 2. Focus on people’s contributions and stay away from acrimony. And 3. Don’t focus on nostalgia and don’t mystify the past.

Redford was not alone in his endeavor. He lists purveyors of the scene like Kamala Parks, Robert Eggplant, Dave Mello, Tim Armstrong, and Jesse Michaels, among others, noting that “all these people in some way made the art for the movie or were going through the archives with us. To be doing this with the people who helped create the history was invaluable. It was amazing.”

“The roster of our movie is insane,” Redford says. It must be hard to crank through interview after interview with icons of the scene and not have the occasional “holy shit” moment. For Redford, “sitting with Iggy Pop in his living room to record narration was a trip.” Hearing the director talk about seeing Pop basking in the sun in his backyard surrounded by lizards, it’s clear he hasn’t quite processed what his life has become thanks to this film. Oh, then there was that time he got to show Ian MacKaye some never-before-seen Fugazi footage. And the time Tim Armstrong drew his house for an art piece.

We’re sure you’d be tripping too.

But it wasn’t all about the glamour; the responsibility that came with Redford’s job weighed heavy. “Nostalgia is a mother,” he admits. “I can understand not wanting to get mired in it.”

Therein lies the challenge: how does a documentary avoid getting mired in nostalgia? Redford says they achieved this by “showing the dorkiness and accessibility of the early Gilman scene.

Nobody had the same costume. Many of these bands did not sound punk.

You’re showing the past, but you’re not saying it’s awesome. We don’t have interviewees saying, ‘Those were the times.’”

Unfortunately, the cutting room floor ran thick with discarded footage. The initial cut of the film was close to five hours and, while some of the deleted footage may eventually appear online or on the Blu-ray release, “anything you lose is heartbreaking,” Redford says.

“This is people’s sacred history, and I know that I did the best I could. I know that I worked 60 to 100 hours a week for almost four years straight trying to do the best I can. There are certain people I would have liked to see in it more, but the edit is brutal.”

The true test came on May 24 when the final film was premiered to an intimate crowd of cast, crew, family, and friends.

“Why would I invite the 200 people that are in this film to sit in a room together and watch this fucking movie?” Redford muses. “I might as well put stocks out in the lobby and have a basket of tomatoes.

I’m not a complete outlier in this scene, so I think that’s hopefully one of my saving graces.” Any worries evaporated as an emotional Redford introduced his film to cheers and applause from the room. With the mood sufficiently lightened, folks settled in with their popcorn for what was clearly a personal story for many, punctuated by laughs, cheers, and maybe a few tears.

Amongst the encroaching gentrification, 924 Gilman Street stays true to its principles. Thirty years later, Yohannan’s rules remain stenciled at the entrance and that “dorkiness” and “accessibility” that Redford describes is still there in spades. Go see it with your own eyes. It’s real and it’s genuine. “I’m not saying it’s about being cool or being in the know,” he says. “It’s there, and it will always be there, [...] that spirit of creativity and dissent. It will always be there if you look for it. I hope Gilman lasts for my kid to be able to go there.”

Redford welcomed his first son, Rex, just over two years ago in the midst of production, while the nearly four-year gestation period for “Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk” ended on May 31 with an opening night gala festival premiere at SF DocFest. Only Redford and his family know what Rex weighed at birth, but his other baby, “Turn It Around,” came in at a whopping two hours, 37 minutes, and 38 seconds.

For a guy facing the late-July nationwide rollout of his most significant work as a documentarian, Redford remains contemplative. “I don’t know what the future holds, but it’s been a hell of a ride, I’ll tell you that,” he says.

“If this was my crescendo in the creative world, I’d be OK with it.”

Visit EastBayPunk.com for screenings, ticket info, and DVD, Blu-ray, and digital release dates. For more info on how to support 924 Gilman, visit HelpGilman.org.

CORBETT AND DAVE ED OF NEUROSIS PHOTO: ROBERT EGGPLANT

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S

hortly after Jesse Michaels turned 12, his parents started to bounce him back and forth between his native Berkeley, CA and Pittsburgh, PA. “I was fucking up in school a lot,” Michaels says. “They were trying to figure out to do with me. I didn’t have anything against school. I wasn’t in that mental space—I didn’t have whatever it takes to kind of fit in.

I had severe depression and anxiety, which can only be described as mental and emotional health issues.

I still have them to this day. I was in my own little world, really.”

Both of Michaels’ parents were academics: his mother had a PhD in Sociology and his father was respected writer. Michaels says, “My father was a very intense person.

I never doubted that he loved me, and I miss him dearly, but there was a lot of conflict. It was very hard for him to understand that I didn’t do well in school. Being an academic, education was the highest value to him.”

Since he was not doing well in school, he wasn’t getting along with his parents, and he was extremely creative, it’s no surprise that Michaels fell into punk rock.

His first exposure came via a MAD Magazine parody in 1979. Not long after that, his father bought him a book simply titled “Punk.” “I was obsessed with it,” he says. “That’s where I got the idea to be a singer for a band, long before I had any opportunity for it.”

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“I liked the creative aspect of punk,” he continues. “I liked that it was an instinctive critique of society. It wasn’t an essay—it was a reaction to how stupid everything is. ‘We’re gonna be weird, because the world is boring.’”

Between his homes on opposite coasts, Michaels formed several short-lived bands with other Bay Area notables including Dave Edwardson of Neurosis, author Aaron Cometbus, and Jeff Ott of Crimpshrine. “Around ‘85 or ‘86, a lot of the old bands broke up and a lot of the venues closed,” Michaels says.

“At a certain point, things got so violent and ugly that the energy died.

To me, things felt burnt.”

Just after that, a new scene began to flourish in Berkeley. Michaels already knew guitarist Tim Armstrong; they were both huge Crimpshrine fans and regularly saw each other at shows. Along with drummer Dave Mello and bassist Matt Freeman, they started the band that would become Operation Ivy. Combining their love of the early English scene, New York’s CBGB set, L.A.’s sunset strip crew, and 2 Tone ska, they forged a new type of punk, “third wave ska.” With their jumpy yet hard rhythms, combustible energy, and—perhaps most importantly—Michaels’ otherworldly lyrics that were at once personal and political, Op Ivy set a standard that bands are still chasing to this day.

OPERATION IVY @ 924 GILMAN PHOTO: MURRAY BOWLES

Across the span of a mere two years, they played nearly 200 shows, including one of the earliest gigs at 924 Gilman. “The truth with Gilman is that myself and many other people were like, ‘This is great,’ and also, ‘This sucks!’” Michaels says. “There were so many rules.

It kind of puts a veneer of respectability over everything—kind of like planned rebellion, if you will. There were control freaks. I had mixed feelings. I never thought it was the greatest place around. I never felt like it was ‘my place.’ But we did play there a lot. They had their shit together, unlike every other club that there ever was, ever.”

a divorce—you might be relieved that you’re out of the situation, but no one is excited or glad about that kind of feeling.”

Op Ivy’s rise was relatively meteoric, but near the end, their personalities were clashing constantly. Michaels explains, “It was over stuff like, one person wants the song to go ‘Yeah yeah yeah!’ and the other wants the song to go ‘No no no!’ and it turns into a power struggle.” With few options left, the band imploded.

“I had to stop doing it,” Michaels says. “If the house is on fire, you get out of the house. It might be like

“As for Operation Ivy, I don’t really look backwards too often,” he concludes. “But that doesn’t really matter. Your own assessment of your work is not that relevant. I’m very pleased that people are still finding meaning in those songs on their own terms.”

Michaels drifted away from music before eventually returning with Big Rig, Common Rider, and Classics Of Love, but stayed committed to his first love: drawing. He recently collaborated with the skateboard company Altamont to release a limited-edition t-shirt featuring his art. “Drawing is something that I’ve done since I was 3,” Michaels says.

“It’s probably the closest form to my soul. It just gives me pure pleasure.”

I

f punk’s common thread is anti-authoritarianism, one potential mindset is a nihilistic race to self-destruction while the other sows seeds of positivity to sprout from the underground and influence society as a whole.

Certain scenes and venues have a tradition of fostering the latter thanks to the individuals within them. Drummer, promoter, and tour booker and manager Kamala Lyn Parks was a networker of East Bay punk, unknowingly designing what would become a blueprint for DIY scenes worldwide. “Like many people who get into punk, there’s anger, angst, and some abuse in your life that generally leads you to question the status quo,” Parks explains. “It resonated in the ‘80s when Reagan was president, but even before that for us in California, because he was governor. He fucked up our state and then went on to fuck up the nation. We’re still in the throes of that revolution.”

in Rapid City, South Dakota, at a V.A. hall with The Offspring,” Parks recalls. “Our female singer wasn’t wearing much. She had her bits covered up with duct tape that kept coming off. After our set, the V.A. guys said they were going to stop the show because there was nudity.

They were always under the thumb of whoever was operating the venue.

Gilman is different because we have the permits and we run the place.”

Parks’ is also an important voice in “Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk.” “I think it did a good job of not getting lost in the negative aspects,” she says of the documentary. “Not that you want to paint everything with a rainbow brush, but it really concentrated on the constructive aspects. There’s always going to be the squabbles—for example, when Green Day signed to a major record label, that was a major rift. It’s not sidestepped. It’s treated even-handedly. What [director and

PHOTO: FRANK PIEGARO

producer] Corbett [Redford] did was not rely on one person saying something. It had to resonate with many people to be considered a major event, topic, or band. There had to be a critical mass, and he dealt with that very well.”

Coincidentally—or perhaps, incidentally—today, Parks is a transportation planner in Berkeley, working on different initiatives to lessen the city’s traffic and carbon footprint. “My interest is making

sure our city is more oriented toward pedestrians, bicycles, and public transit users,” she explains, “making vehicles feel more like a guest than dominating the city.”

She says she finds herself using her experience in the punk scene just as much as her Civil Engineering and Planning degrees from the University of California.

Parks was drawn to the bands who discussed society’s ills and became a vegetarian before she even got into punk. She and Victor Hayden partnered with Maximumrocknroll to establish the Gilman Street Project— better known as the venue, 924 Gilman—in 1986, which included participating in the city council meeting for the venue’s zoning approval to get the doors open. Her bands played there and she booked shows, but she gives most credit to the hardcore volunteers who were there every weekend, noting, “It was music and community. They key was not deifying the bands, but letting the audience know that they were as integral a player as the bands. There was heckling. People were encouraged to interact. There’s no backstage, so bands can’t readily disappear.”

Parks drummed for Kamala And The Karnivores, Cringer, The Gr’ups, Naked Aggression, and Hers Never Existed and booked tours for bands like Operation Ivy, Neurosis, and Citizen Fish, giving her a uniquely wide perspective.

“Sometimes, you’re involved in something and you think that it’s very precious,” she admits, “but other places had this great energy and sense of community going on too, especially when things were still underground.”

What makes Gilman so unique is that it’s a collective, whereas other scenes have to rent halls and adhere to the rules of the owner. “On one tour, The Gr’ups were playing

KAMALA AT A SHOW IN PINOLE CIRCA 1989 PHOTO: MURRAY BOWLES

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RUDY’S CAN’T FAIL CAFE Named after one of the key tracks on The Clash’s London Calling, Rudy’s opened its doors in 2002 in Emeryville, just a few miles from both Oakland and Berkeley. Co-owned by Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, Rudy’s serves up classic diner fare with a creative twist and is known for its relaxed and welcoming atmosphere with subtle nods to punk culture—not to mention its killer coffee.

Besides its locally-sourced ingredients and unique takes on classic dishes—like the “Your Own Private Eyedaho” breakfast—Rudy’s is also known for its quirky décor. Customers can check out original artwork, vintage toys, band stickers, and more, all while dining in vintage-inspired booths and tables.

BROKEN GUITARS Owned by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and his Pinhead Gunpowder bandmate Bill Schneider, Broken Guitars first broke ground during the spring of 2015. The shop has made a name for itself with its specially curated collection of vintage, rare, and contemporary guitars and amps. Schneider also builds custom amplifiers, known as Dexter Amps and has been involved with Green Day in various facets for years.

In fact, the store opened with just a few dozen instruments plucked from both his and Armstrong’s personal collections.

A stone’s throw from 1-2-3-4 Go!, the shop fits harmoniously within the neighborhood, making it a true destination for musicians of all stripes.

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PIRATES PRESS

1-2-3-4 GO! RECORDS

Located in Emeryville, record label and manufacturer Pirates Press have been doing their thing since the early 2000s. An amazing story in its own right, the company started and out as a manufacturer for other labels and artists. “I started Pirates Press after being frustrated working for another manufacturer,” founder Eric Mueller says. Being the scrappy, resourceful team that they are, the company started signing bands and releasing an incredible selection of albums and singles from both classic and contemporary bands like Rancid, Cock Sparrer, Interrupters, Victory, Slackers, and many others.

For vinyl junkies, it truly is a great time to be alive. While L.A. still leads the

“The relationships that I had built with our customers and manufacturers were so strong that it naturally synched up under the Pirates Press banner in 2004. A year or so later, we launched Pirates Press Records,” Mueller says. One of the

most obvious aspects that sets Pirates Press apart from other independent labels is the love and attention to detail that goes into their releases—from the deluxe LP covers to the svelte colored vinyl.

“I thoroughly enjoy all the elements of my job, managing people all the way down to helping a band choose their colored vinyl selection,” Mueller adds.

pack in terms of new mom-and-pop record shops springing up, the East Bay is certainly no slouch. 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is one of its leading lights.

Originally launched in Seattle in 2001, the company moved to Oakland in 2003 where it’s been headquartered ever since.

Stocking a wide selection of new, used, and rarities, this decently-sized shop is meticulously organized and super clean. They’ve got a wide selection spanning all punk subgenres and related styles, plus great prices that will make you swear off those pesky online retailers for good—as you

Originally located in San Francisco, Mueller moved the business to the East Bay about a year ago. “While the East Bay has its gentrification problems, San Francisco in many ways has priced out so much of its ‘underground’ scenes,” he says, “and the spillover is being enjoyed and reveled in over here.” With a steadfast dedication to their art, the community, and the punk scene at large, Pirates Press have quickly become an East Bay Institution.

should for vinyl anyway.

But 1-2-3-4 Go! is far more than a store. They’ve also got a label that releases punk goodies and the like, with albums by pop punk legends, Buzzcocks, Zero Boys, and others.

UNITY MART

Nestled further east in Pittsburg, California, Nu-Tone has been around for over 15 years. Owned by Willie Samuels and Chris Dugan, the studio has seen its share of up-and-coming bands and has worked with a virtual who’s who of punk labels including Bridge Nine Records, Fat Wreck Chords, Lookout! Records, Nitro Records, Rise Records, Warner Bros., and more.

Artists who’ve recorded at the studio include Against Me!, Green Day, Iggy Pop, Pinhead Gunpowder, Machine Head, Samiam, The Phenomenauts, The Criminals, Culture Abuse, and others. Equipped with a state-of-the-art console and warm atmospherics, this little studio draws upon its rich history as it helps young artists forge new East Bay punk legacies.

Located in the heart of Oakland, Unity Mart is the brainchild of artist Jeffrey Cheung and friends. A Renaissance man in the true sense of the word, Cheung is a musician in the band Unity, a zine publisher, and the creator of the first queer skateboard company—his signature, hand-painted decks being a standout.

The shop sells art, ceramics, screen prints, shirts, knick-knacks, and more.

A place of inclusion and diversity, the store reflects its owners’ passion for the community and the music and art that fuel it.

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N

ot many people can say they put a face to the East Bay’s storied punk scene, but Murray Bowles can.

Arguably the scene’s most important documentarian, Bowles has shot countless punk and metal bands in the East Bay and San Jose over the past 30-plus years.

His photos from the then-nascent Gilman Street scene, which cropped up in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, captured Green Day, Rancid, Operation Ivy, and countless other bands on the ascent.

He’s even been name-checked in song by NOFX. “I started by taking pictures of nature and stuff like that,” Bowles says, recalling how he first picked up photography. “My grandfather taught me how to develop film.”

When a few friends turned him on to punk rock in the late ‘70s, he started checking out shows at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco and other spots in Oakland.

His interest in the local punk scene led to work reviewing tapes

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and, later, taking photos for the San Jose fanzine, Ripper, something he considered “a natural extension” from going to shows.

“I followed what Tim [Tonooka] from Ripper was doing,” he says.

“In fact, I used the same camera he was using. I learned to move around and not take all your pictures from the same spot, how to hold the camera above my head and stuff like that.”

Shows were held anywhere and everywhere bands and promoters could find space, from halls and traditional venues to warehouses and basements. Bowles recalls shooting a Necros show in someone’s backyard, and notes that “one of the local kids from the scene ended up sitting on the drum set to hold it down.” On another night, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks each played on opposite floors of a two-story venue.

“The next night, someone in Santa Cruz arranged for them to play in a rent-a-garage place, a storage space,” he adds. “That was one of the craziest shows I had seen back in that day.”

But Bowles mainly built his reputation as a photographer in Berkley. He attended the 1986 hearing at which Tim Yohannan received his permit to open up the Alternative Music Foundation, better known worldwide by its address, 924 Gilman Street. The nonprofit space put on punk shows that showcased local bands in a safe, all-ages environment. It also allowed patrons—who each paid a membership to go to shows at the venue—to essentially run the venue by committee.

For many years, Bowles could be found at Gilman, front and center, camera in hand, documenting everything as it happened. Many of his photos appeared in the pages of Yohannan’s legendary punk zine, Maximumrocknroll. Soon, he hopes to have his past work organized in the form of a book.

“It was funny how all of that happened,” Bowles says, looking back on the scene’s rise to prominence.

“Gilman had been set up where, ‘If you’re a small band, you play at Gilman.’ Op Ivy played their first show at Gilman, and by their sec-

ond or third show, they were just huge. Green Day—it was the same thing, but way more so.”

Bowles still lives in San Jose and works by day as a computer programmer—but he still hasn’t put down his camera. These days, he sticks to covering local shows, some in clubs, others in backyards and houses. “There’s a house that does three or four shows every summer, mostly metal bands, but some punk bands and grindcore,” he says. “I’m actually seeing more grindcore, metal, and powerviolence shows these days. It’s what people are seeing and playing.”

The shift away from punk and toward metal isn’t the only thing that has changed since he first began shooting. Like many photographers, he’s long abandoned film and moved toward shooting digitally. His days of selling prints at shows for a quarter are behind him, but there are upsides to his new way of working. “The great thing is I’m taking way more pictures, so that’s fun,” he shares.

PHOTO: MURRAY BOWLES

Bucher played in a number of bands— including Soup, Sweet Baby Jesus, and The Wynona Riders—and created art for some of his own releases. He also drew the cover for Very Small Records’ Very Small World punk compilation in 1991, which features everyone from Pinhead Gunpowder and Sleep to Voodoo Glow Skulls and Jawbreaker.

“At the time, people would call me a ‘poser,’ so I sort of embraced that. I felt outside of punk at times.

I felt outside of everything—walking down the street, you knew you were going to get hassled. Frat boys would definitely fuck with you.”

Artist Spotlight: Richie Bucher Interview by John Gentile

Richie Bucher is reflecting on the “golden era” of the late ‘80s East Bay punk scene. Little did his detractors know, the burgeoning artist would come to define the era, and more specifically, the physical area.

“At the time, people would call me a ‘poser,’ so I sort of embraced that. I felt outside of Best known as the artist who created punk at times. I felt the cover for Green Day’s Dookie in 1994, Bucher of helped set the tone for the outside everything— scene. Featuring a cartoon dog dropwalking down the ping bombs on a motley collection of East Bay residents, the seminal album’s street, you knew you cover features a fantastic sense of mowere going to get does all of tion, insight, and whimsy—as Bucher’s work. hassled. Frat boys “When I think about punkfuck rock and would definitely Green Day and the East Bay scene, it with really didyou.” feel like dropping a bomb on

“I distinctly remember hearing The Clash for the first time when I was 12,” Bucher says. “That, along DEVO [and] The B-52s just grabbed me and blew my mind.”

Bucher says, “To me, punk isn’t a sense of something that you adhere to, a proscribed thing. I’m not even really sure what it is. I just identify with its creative expression and recognizing bullshit—wanting to create stuff on your own terms.”

“It does blow my mind that so many people have seen the Dookie cover,” he continues. “I’m proud of the drawing, but it’s not how I define myself. I’ve done lots of things that I’m proud of. I feel lucky and happy and grateful to be a part of it all and to do it with a bunch of people who I admire and respect. It was freaky and weird, and all of us were just outside of everything else.”

Check out more of Richie’s art at rbucherart.com

RICHIE AND THE COVER HE DREW FOR THIS ISSUE (AND OUR BOSS LADY LISA ROOT)

something and then leaving an impact,” Bucher says. “I was listening to the first two Green Day albums, [1990’s 39/ Smooth and 1991’s Kerplunk], and the concept came to me like that.”

Richie Bucher is reflecting on the “golden era” of the Bucher’s work follows in the tradition late East Bay of other‘80s cartooning greats.

As a preteen, he would sneak into his brother’s room punk scene. Little and rifle through his record collection didcomic hisbook detractors and stash. One of his main influences was English political carknow, the burgeoning toonist Steve Bell and the witty, ghoulish comic strips he scribbled the liner artist would comein to notes of The Clash’s 1980 Sandinista! define the era, and LP. more specifically, the

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PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

JENNA PRIESTNER OF MOBINA GALORE PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

KYLE PULLEY OF THIN LIPS PHOTO: JESS FLYNN

“Nimrod was released when I was in grade seven—the year I learned how to play guitar—and became the foundation of my power chord punk style! ’Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’ is an epically timeless song that any guitar player learned early on.

Being able to see that performed live for the first time just this year blew me away!”

“If I were to be honest with myself, I would not be the musician— and perhaps even the person—I am today without punk from the East Bay scene. […] Green Day was the first band that was mine!

When I heard Dookie the spring of my fifth-grade year of school, it changed my life. It turned me onto modern rock radio where I learned about Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana—and lots of bad bands too! [Laughs] It was the first time I felt like I knew about something that was cool! Kids made fun of me for loving Garth Brooks, but not Green Day! Green Day made me want to quit piano lessons and learn guitar!”

RAY CARLISLE OF TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

PHOTO: JESS FLYNN

KELEN CAPENER OF THE STORY SO FAR PHOTO: KATIE SNODGRASS

“The Bay Area was a breeding ground for some of the best punk rock bands in the world to break out of the ‘90s, and these bands influenced countless young people, myself included, to pick up a guitar for the first time. I learned guitar by listening to and playing along to songs off of Green Day’s Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, and Warning records. In sixth grade, I even remember performing ‘Waiting’ at my middle school talent show. The VHS recording of that prepubescent performance—thank God—is likely lost in oblivion.”

DAN ROCK OF WORLD'S SCARIEST POLICE CHASES “My friend Tom up the street had Dookie. Brandon and I saw the CD, and we made fun of Green Day’s band name. Tom sorta shrugged and said, ‘Oh really?’ Then, he played us ‘Basket Case.’ […] We went from loving Janes Addiction and Primus to loving Operation Ivy and The Queers within a month. The problem is a bunch of bands that say they wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Green Day, I feel like, ‘Hey, that’s our story, and your band sounds like dog shit.” But that’s the thing: Green Day is monumental, they changed a shit-ton of people’s lives, not just ours.”

NEIL WAYNE AND JOSH LEWIS OF THE BOMBPOPS PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

“When it comes to East Bay bands, I’d have to say for Josh and I, our biggest influence was definitely AFI. We were both in high school around the time AFI was just blowing up and everyone was really infatuated with them—so many friends rockin’ their Davey Havok devilocks. […] Josh even one time ripped off AFI lyrics for an English class assignment, and the teacher was like, ‘Wow man, that’s really dark.’ His friends, of course, called him out, though, saying how full of shit he was.”

“One look at World’s Scariest Police Chases’ NOFX and Out Come the Wolves Dookie, and it should be incredibly obvious that the East Bay punk scene had a bit of an influence on me and the rest of the band. I was 12 when Dookie came out, and although I grew up sharing a bedroom with older brothers that were listening to Black Flag, Minor Threat, and Gorilla Biscuits, Dookie was the first punk album that was mine and Rancid was the first concert I went without my older brother. […] When I say punk rock ruined my life, it all definitely started with a couple little bands from the East Bay scene.”

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PHOTO:STEINUNN LILJA DRAUMLAND

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through, see, feel, or practice,” he says. “First time we asked ourselves if we’d get away with making soft stuff—softer than ever before—was when we did the Köld album, and especially when I did the clean vocal part in the title song. I guess, after that, we learned that it does not matter what other people think; we only write music that we like, and if others like it as well, that is great.

The more we have stepped outside of the borders of heavy metal in general, the bigger our music has gotten and we have received greater love from our audience.”

A

ccording to Sólstafir vocalist and guitarist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, the title of the band’s new album, Berdreyminn, means “a dreamer of forthcoming events” in Icelandic.

Sólstafir fans have not only stuck with the band, according to Tryggvason, but have responded even more enthusiastically than they did to their earlier, heavier stuff.

“We can only write music that mirrors your daily life and what you go

All the same, Tryggvason suggests that Sólstafir are not prepared to relinquish the title of “metal band.” He notes, “It’s not like we changed style over night.

We’re still a metal band, we’re just not your ordinary band.”

In fact, if anything, Berdreyminn turned out to be an even heavier

Perhaps it makes sense that the album turned out heavier, given some of the subject matter it deals with. “Hvít Sæng,” for instance, is about two avalanches that happened in 1995 very close to Tryggvason’s hometown in the West Fjörds of Iceland. Meanwhile, Tryggvason says that “Silfur-Refur” and “Ísafold”—the two songs that open the record, which are closely related lyrically—deal with “very dark mental issues.”

Both songs were released as singles ahead of the album, which dropped back in May on Season Of Mist. The third prerelease single, “Bláfjall,” also appears to deal with some intense, dark psychological themes. Tryggvason says it’s “a metaphor about a black mountain that is the dark place you can lose your mind in, and it’s a constant struggle about staying away from the shadow claws.”

Finding it instantly relatable, Tryggvason voted to use the name as soon as it was proposed. “As a kid, I used to dream things that would [come true] the next day,” he says, “mostly persons that I had not seen in a long time, next morning, boom.

I would be constantly saying to myself, ‘No way, you’re fucking kidding me,’ ‘cause this was just too unreal.”

Ever since their third album, Köld, was released in 2009, Sólstafir have focused more on channeling this sense of the mystery and wonder of life—in addition to other emotional responses to the world—than they have on the traditional sounds of heavy metal. The result is decidedly less sinister and heavy than many of their metal contemporaries. Even as bands like Deafheaven and Ghost Bath are finding crossover success by combining metal with shoegaze, post-rock, and other non-metal styles, Sólstafir stand out as a “metal” band who are not afraid to get in touch with their sensitive side and mine it for inspiration.

album than they initially planned.

According to Tryggvason, “At a certain point, I was thinking this would be more of a keyboard or piano-oriented album—since we wrote a lot of it like that, on keys and piano—but it ended up being quite the guitar record. I also wanted to make a bit more aggressive vocals, something that I missed a bit after touring [for 2014’s] Ótta, as there are mostly very soft vocals there.”

Ultimately, Berdreyminn is wide-ranging in terms of inspiration, as Sólstafir continue to explore the human condition without limits. As Tryggvason points out, “There is sadness there, anger, grudge, the search for peace of mind, refusing to give in to hatred, pity, serenity, spiritual awakening, feeling doomed by depression, and—last, but not least—hope.”

PHOTO:HAFSTEINN VIDAR

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PHOTO:JESS FLYNN

I

n 2013, Captain, We’re Sinking’s sophomore record, The Future Is Cancelled, was a restless perspective from four young adults in their early to mid 20s who were unsettled and wanted more from a world that wasn’t ready to provide it—well, not just yet, anyway. As vocalist and guitarist Bob Barnett indicates, patience is a virtue.

Now, the band are a bit older and wiser and recognize that it’s all about that search for answers—even if these answers aren’t right there in front you.

Captain, We’re Sinking detail this journey of self-discovery and introspection intimately. This new outlook on life finds the Scranton quartet back with The King of No Man—out June 23 via Run For Cover Records—an album that’s very much tempered from their previous material. They’ve scrubbed quite a bit of their post-hardcore aggression out and taken a more melodic route.

“I think this record is much more of us looking inward about ourselves,” Barnett explains. “Lyrically, a lot of points trying to be made on this record are: ‘Things are tough. Problems keep coming up. OK. What are we gonna do about

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it?’ Songs like ‘Trying Year,’ ‘Dance of Joy,’ ‘Crow,’ and ‘Hunting Trip’ all show this kind of adversity to face, and then, ask the question, ‘All right. Now what?’

Instead of just saying or realizing that everything is bleak in the world, this record I think is us trying to at least attempt to find an answer to them. Or maybe not even finding the answer, but at least taking the next step of asking, ‘What am I gonna do about it?’”

Barnett states that apart from their being more mature and experienced, a lot of this new subdued style came from simply being back together again. It was a sense of relief after being holed up alone in Scranton while the guys were home in Philly. As things became more collaborative, they discovered new styles under the tutelage of producer and lifelong friend, Matt Schimelfenig of Three Man Cannon, recalibrating their old fire of youth. “He was able to understand each of our personalities to a point of, like, ‘Well, I see what you’re trying to do here, but why don’t you try to do it like this,’” Barnett says. “It’s not just screaming at the top of our lungs and sounding frantic all the time, and it was a lot of his input as to: ‘Why don’t you just keep it subdued? I think that’s

what the song is calling for.’ He was able to get that out of us, which was really cool.”

The band compressed the process, writing in fall of 2016 and recording in winter, but Barnett reveals that they couldn’t have been more comfortable.

Muscles were flexing like never before, especially with vocalist and guitarist Leo Vergnetti and drummer Bill Orender challenging each other to the limits. While writing, Barnett found a new lease on life, even bringing out his inner sci-fi geek on the title track. Two people colonize a planet and decide to kill off their fellow inhabitants to see who’d be resurrected and prove one of them is God. When nothing happens, one commits suicide, leaving the other behind as a lone wolf: a king with no man to rule over. Still, Barnett insists The King of No Man is not a concept album. “This one was kind of a standalone thing,” he insists. “Each song has its own story.”

The new collection is a mix of fiction and reality, as Barnett couldn’t help but circle back to the personal demons that shaped the depression and angst of the previous album. This is evident in “Trying Year,” which focuses on him trying

to pay his college tuition and balancing being a student teacher and being away from his family and the band. It’s a mantra he hummed while walking through courtyards—“It’s been a really trying year, a really long year!”—laughing his way through the stress.

This tongue-in-cheek nature is reflected fully on the album, which Barnett believes spreads positivity and optimism.

“If ‘the future is cancelled,’ maybe this dark picture does offer glimpses of hope and light in certain pockets,” he says.

“We’re still facing some of the problems we faced back then, four years ago, but this time, instead of curling up like a ball, we’re gonna stand up and face them head-on.”

Captain, We’re Sinking have crafted a picture of resilience, remodeling tracks from Barnett’s Little Wounds side project. Barnett’s philosophy is to embrace all of the bad, because the future is never really cancelled. As he points out, there’s always the promise of tomorrow to remind you that while the ship may be sinking, you don’t have to go down with it.

Land Animal

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it the way we wanted. The first record, [2014’s Across the Dark River], was written entirely in the rehearsal space. And after seeing the end result, the way we wrote this new record was far more effective and productive.”

I

t’s important to work on your own inner-community.

This will inevitably lead to a stronger outer-community. The self is the temple, the structure to the higher realm.

Retro doom masters, Below— one of Sweden’s most epic heavy metal collectives—are a case in study. The group’s most righteous riffs, apexes, and patterns happen, first and foremost, because of individual perseverance. When forged together, the band are unstoppable. “We are all good friends, but we don’t hang out on a daily basis,” guitarist Micke Berg says. “For me personally, it’s important to be alone and to remove myself from the outside world as much as I can. I pre-

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of loss and separation. But moments of bliss even out the onslaught, and the listener is left empowered—a quality all great records contain. By daring to expand their sound, Below have found a groove that flutters the heart: a nifty complexity within a rigid mindscape. “We knew The band also extended their we wanted a more diverse, galactic vision for this one. more epic album than our last The variance on Upon a Pale one,” Berg says. “We also knew Horse is much wider than that that we wanted a colder feeling of Across the Dark River. The to this album. We cut ourselves band’s sound is classic doom, loose from the frames of inspibut there are contemporary ration that were on the first alfer to escape everything, both flourishes—crusty black met- bum, stuff like King Diamond in mind and body. I need that al, thrash, industrial, progres- and Candlemass. That stuff’s alone time.” sive—that round out a sound still part of the central base, but destined for the stars. “Suffer we let a lot of the other sides of The band’s newest slab of in Silence” is a straight thrash- us in as well.” crush, Upon a Pale Horse—re- er: a song built within a classic leased May 19 on Metal Blade system and an example of the Below are a journey. Each song Records—witnesses the group group’s growing freedom. “I they forge, a tale, a place to coming into their own. The wrote that riff with King Dia- dream and to drift away. A stosound is like mountains, rivers, mond [and] Mercyful Fate in ry unfolding right before your and caves: huge, wide, and echo- mind,” Berg explains. “At first, it eyes. “We just want to tell good ing full. The riffs are timeless, was just regular power chords, stories and deliver some kind reverberating through your in- and it felt a little flat. So, we of real feeling with that story,” ner-community, twentyfold. changed it and played it in mi- Berg notes. “When we create nor, and it just came out right. our songs, they happen in a nat“We worked on this album We were a little skeptical about ural way. Once you get a feeling quite differently than the last it at first, but since we wanted of what the song should be like, one,” Berg notes. “We wrote to expand our sound, we made you just let it take you to that almost all the music at home it fit into the band’s overall special place.” and did demos of everything framework.” in my home studio. We tried out different arrangements all Upon a Pale Horse is infinitely the time, just so we could get dark. The central mood is one

PHOTO: JAMES ALVAREZ

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B

rooklyn’s Mutoid Man are the sonic representation of an independent power surge within the depths of the metal community. Their songs are packed with blistering, riff-tastic compositions full of fiery, high-octane energy. While they’ve put out some of the best heavy metal bangers in recent memory, the most iconic thing about Mutoid Man is their ability to clearly convey just how much passion is infused into their music.

“The ultimate goal of any Mutoid Man song is that it is fun to play,” bassist Nick Cageao states about the impetus behind their sophomore LP, War Moans. The trio— composed of drummer Ben Koller of Converge, vocalist and guitarist Stephen Brodsky of Cave In, and Cageao, who also works as the sound engineer at Saint Vitus—released the full-length on June 2 via Sargent House.

The band members’ uniquely entertaining personalities do wonders for their music. Brodsky explains the process of writing a Mutoid Man song with a hilarious anecdote: “A lot of it starts with me writing at home, whether it’s a voice memo or me playing guitar in my underwear.

That’s what it takes these days. I send them so much shit these days, sometimes they just don’t look. But when I send a video of me, you know, basically naked, then that is going to increase the chance of them listening to what I write.”

“It just starts with a simple idea,” Brodsky continues. “If these guys are excited about playing it or Ben sends something he is pumped on, like a drumbeat, that’s how it starts.”

Clearly, the band take heavy metal seriousness and strip it down, showcasing a more wild, unhinged side of the genre that is drenched in musical joy.

For the creation of War Moans, Mutoid Man made sure that they were more prepared to enter the studio.

“I wrote the vocals and lyrics much earlier in the process than [2015’s] Bleeder,” Brodsky says. “By the time we actually got to tracking that record, were all present in the studio and hearing how the vocals would fit. With War Moans, we were much more involved in demoing way earlier in the process of writing and making the record.” This certainly shows within Brodsky’s operatic shrills and vocal range across the record.

Cageao believes Brodsky is “undeniably one of the best vocalists in all of music,” and it’s hard to disprove that statement after hearing the vocal performance on the sixth track, “Headrush.”

War Moans opens with “Melt Your Mind,” featuring a flurry of bombastic progressions vivaciously speeding through the gates of Hell.

A punishing bass leads the charge, with distorted guitars playing off each other over the top of Koller’s breakneck drum pace. It’s an electric shock to the heart that throws influences away, crafting a style completely unique to Mutoid Man. “Micro Aggression” spurts with tumultuous beatdowns, crashing

under Brodsky’s confident vocal approach. The guitars ring out with dissonance, creating an atmosphere of unrelenting chaos.

“Date with the Devil” opens with a cataclysmic heaviness appropriate to its theme of the devil seeking revenge on humanity. The song’s lyrics describes going on a date with Satan’s daughter, then unknowingly impregnating her and causing destruction. It ties in with the record’s cover, created by John Santos, which features a demonic kiss.

“It’s really fun to play,” Brodsky says of the track, “and we don’t have many songs that sit in that groove of heavy all the way through. It’s grittier, covered in sores, and on its way to get tested for all sorts of things.”

These three musicians constantly push each other to the best of their abilities, including siphoning inspiration from each other. Cageao describes the thought process that went into War Moans as “leveling up!” The levels that they jumped to are immeasurable. “Open Flame” envisions the circles of Hell collapsing in on each other, the end eclipsed by a bellowing bass over harmonious guitar wails. The guitar riffs are electric, punching through Koller’s tremendous blast

beats with soaring melodies and a pensive, melancholic dance into the finale. “Every time I hear the double bass kicking in and that constant drone, it makes me want to punch walls and make babies,” Cageao comments about the end of the song.

Mutoid Man are a band who redefine the artistry of creating music, but they are appreciative of the community around them, working with producer Kurt Ballou of Converge—with whom Koller and Brodsky have been making music since the late ‘90s. Brodsky reflects, “There was a whole language there [with Kurt] that could be used without needing to specify everything, and it made things happen a lot quicker.” Being able to call Sargent House their home has also assured the band that creatively, their music will remain representative of who they are.

With such a vibrant stroke of personality and energy in every song, Mutoid Man’s War Moans is best described by Cageao: “It feels like a fucking homerun.”

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PHOTO: DILLON FLOWERS

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G

oatwhore probably need no introduction. They have released six albums since 2000 and established themselves as one of the most consistently and cleverly brutal extreme metal bands out there, known for incorporating everything great about metal into their thrashy, sludgy, blackened death sound.

Hell, most of you probably already know that Vengeful Ascension—the band’s eagerly awaited seventh fulllength album—is out June 23 on Metal Blade Records.

and all the bands work to- usually that phrase, ‘If it gether.” ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ But I think too, sometimes with Rooted in their hometown a band, you have to take as they may be, Goatwhore that step and maybe go in a are not mired in the past. To slight bit different direction wit, in the band’s quest to to try to capture the band in refine the methods by which a different kind of light or a the unfiltered ferocity of different kind of tone.” their live set is captured in the studio, they recorded Still, Falgoust doubts that 2014’s Constricting Rage of the raw fury of a live Goatthe Merciless reel-to-reel, whore show can ever truthe first album they’d done ly be captured on tape. “I that way. Vengeful Ascension mean, recording is evolving was recorded reel-to-reel as so much that sometimes well and produced by the you listen to your stuff, and band’s longtime live sound you’re like, ‘Is this a little engineer Jarrett Pritchard, too clean?’” he admits. “Eswho has also collaborated pecially when you grew up with 1349 and Gruesome in with some of the older metBut no matter high Goat- the studio. al records, when you hear a whore climb or how far lot of things now, you’re just On their last four albums, like, ‘I wonder if that’s a litGoatwhore had worked tle too clean or a little too

songs that are entwined with emotional outbreak— emotion that can take over ego in a sense. If you want to actually connect that [to the main theme], you can connect that with the idea of Lucifer too, about being too overbearing and thinking you’re too far on the top, and then you get tossed to the bottom and you have to work your way back up.”

For instance, Falgoust says that the song “Under the Flesh, Into the Soul” is “about a first-person point of view of resentment, and how resentment consumes one’s ego, one’s soul, and how it sends you down a negative path.”

Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and the stories of H.P.

they travel, they’ll always be a product of the New Orleans scene from which they emerged in the late ‘90s, formed by former members of bands like Soilent Green and Acid Bath.

Vocalist Ben Falgoust says it’s an especially tight-knit scene, and the pride he takes in that fact is evident.

“I think the [New Orleans] scene has always been a very close, tight kind of community,” he says. “I think it still is. I mean, look at—recently, we did a benefit show for [vocalist] Mike Williams [of Eyehategod].

It was a two-day thing— both days were sold out—to help him out with his liver transplant and everything.

It’s always been like that there; it’s always been like a community kind of thing,

Lovecraft serve as lyrical inspiration as well. One of the album’s singles, “Chaos Arcane,” is a riff on Lovecraftian malign deity and Crawling Chaos character, Nyarlathotep. “Everybody usually does Cthulhu,” Falgoust notes, “but I just found [the Nyarlathotep] story so interesting, because it represents a lot of things that go on in the world today, like the over-looming fear and chaos and things that go on.

You see things on the news and stuff like that, political things, war—it all blends into the idea of the Crawling Chaos.”

with producer—and Hate Eternal vocalist and guitarist—Erik Rutan, experiences that Falgoust says the band relished. He and his bandmates decided to record Vengeful Ascension with Pritchard mainly as a way of keeping things fresh.

“Sometimes, you step away from a producer you’ve been using and go to a different person and kind of step into that realm, because every one of them is different,” Falgoust notes, “they offer something very unique in their own individual way, the way they approach things, the way they get tones, the way they hear things and perceive things within the songs. I think we did a bunch of great records with Rutan, and it’s

polished.’ I think we wanted to have that live element to it. I definitely do think we got a little bit closer to it. I don’t think we’ll ever conquer that completely, but I think the whole grittiness of it is a lot more prevalent on this record.”

Lyrically, Vengeful Ascension is inspired by Lucifer and loosely based around the story of his being cast out of and attempts to get back into heaven. After all, some broke things definitely don’t need fixing, and metal plus Satan is obviously one of those things. “The basis is the idea of the whole vengeful ascension thing of course, but there’s other songs intertwined in there with different aspects,” Falgoust explains. “There are

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T

he best day ever is right around the corner. People are gearing up for Warped Tour 2017: buying their tickets, packing their drawstring bags, putting on plenty of sunscreen, and getting ready to see an absolutely stacked lineup. With a great variety of bands including Hatebreed, American Authors, The Adolescents, and Andy Black, there’s going to be a little bit of something for everyone this year.

Often, festival-goers only focus on the bands onstage, the people they paid money to see—but what about the man who puts it all together?

Kevin Lyman is a pioneer in the music industry, a man who has established himself as one of the biggest promoters in the alternative music scene. He has successfully helmed the largest-running North American festival tour for the past 23 years, bringing innumerable music fans many years of happiness and fond memories. Lyman is also the founder of the incredibly punk It’s Not Dead Fest, an all-day festival where punk bands from all over the world come to rock in Anaheim, California.

Obviously, booking and running Warped Tour is a job not many could handle. Add another festival on top of that, and any normal promoter would be driven insane.

So, how does Lyman do it? How does he book such a diverse lineup?

“I feel like this is something we’ve tried to do every year,” he explains.

“It’s something that the tour has always been about. Like last year, we got to bring out Good Charlotte to this new generation. This has been a thing we’ve done since we started in 1995. We’ve always tried to bring things that we think people haven’t seen before, whether that be old or new. Like with GWAR, I believe everyone should see them at least once in their life.”

Lyman is also excited to give overseas bands a chance to tour the States. “We have some bands from the U.K. that are really excited to be on the tour this year, and we’re really excited to have them,” he says. “Bands like Sonic Boom Six are getting a chance to come over to the States and play for a loving crowd. That’s a big deal for bands like that who make the journey, so we’re really excited to have them.”

“We also have some young bands like Knocked Loose who are making waves of their own,” he adds, “so to have them out is also an amazing opportunity for them and us.”

Like Warped, It’s Not Dead Fest is also hosting a lineup littered with stellar veteran bands. When asked if working with these more experienced bands was something he set out to do, Lyman says it’s incidental. “Sometimes, it’s cool just to do things for yourself,” he says. “With the festival, it’s nice to still claim my stake in my own backyard, kind of to say: ‘Hey, this is my turf. I was here first, and I’m still going.’ So, when it comes down to it, it was just something I felt was important to do. The truth of it is that we don’t know how much longer these bands will keep going.

Unfortunately, we’re going to more funerals than births now, so it’s nice to give veteran bands a place to showcase how it’s done.”

So, what are the major differences between running Warped and It’s Not Dead? “Well, obviously, the biggest difference for me has to be the time I have to spend on each project,” Lyman explains. “With It’s Not Dead, I can basically have a grill out in my backyard. I go out, hang out for the whole day, pack up, and I can be home that night if I want to. With Warped, I’m on the road for a straight two months, you know? That’s not really easy for me anymore, and it’s something that keeps getting harder and harder. I wish it was as easy as it used to be, but I’m 56 years old now. I’m not a young man, and eventually, I’m just not gonna be able to do it anymore.”

With the possibility of Lyman passing the torch looming on the horizon, he offers his take on why people should continue to come out to Warped Tour and It’s Not Dead.

“I think with both events, it’s always just a good time in general,” he says.

“Even if you come not knowing any bands, you’ll leave looking up several bands you saw that day. I’m sure there’s been cases where you had that experience. If you’re just a lover of music, I will always suggest to have people come out, listen to some great music, hangout with great people, and bake in the sun with us.”

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THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS The Brooklyn-based retrofuturistic band, The Fantastic Plastics, have been making a lot of noise since the release of their first full-length, Devolver, via Altercation Records in 2016. So much so that the good people over at Warped Tour decided to pick them up for several weeks of touring this summer. Warped attendees can expect to hear tracks from their most recent release, Invasion, which dropped in October of 2016.

“Thematically and lyrically, our new EP, Invasion, picks up where our fulllength, Devolver, left off,” vocalist and guitarist Tyson Plastic says. “Songs about our obsession with television, refusing to become obsolete in the new future, and avoiding our brainwashing surroundings. From a production standpoint, the songs on Invasion hit harder and have a bigger sound meant to fill the room with a sonic boom. The standout song seems to be ‘TV Head,’ a punk disco throwback taking inspiration from The B-52s, The Clash, and the Bee Gees. We haven’t given up on our roots, but we are expanding our musical horizons. Our goal is always to keep

people moving and dancing at our shows while subversively educating them to the truth that lies just beneath the surface.”

So, what is retrofuturism? “For us, retrofuturism is the optimism encapsulated in Space Age design and style, brought forward to the present,” Plastic explains. “There was a future that was predicted back in the 1960s—a world with intergalactic travel, flying cars, peace and harmony—that never came to fruition. Instead, we wound up with reality TV stars as world leaders, iPhones, and pizzas with pizza boxes made out of pizza—although not ideal, it’s not all bad.”

The Fantastic Plastics have further set themselves apart by taking their Space Age style to comic conventions. “We’ve met so many likeminded people, made a lot of friends and fans, and have had our eyes opened to a whole new world of creative people,” Plastic shares.

“For New York Comic Con, we played a cosplay party hosted by Kotaku [and] Gizmodo that was out of this world.

The handmade costumes that were on

I N T E R V I E W W I T H VO CA L I ST / G U I TA R I ST T YS O N P L AST I C BY K E L LY M C G OWA N display were something you’d see in a movie. Seeing them all dance in costume to our music was something we’ll never forget. The best thing about the cons is the unity and support of the community as a whole. It’s very similar to the punk scene in that regard.”

Now, the band will find themselves playing a very different kind of venue— make that venues. “Getting added to Vans Warped Tour is shocking and thrilling,” Plastic exclaims. “Altercation Records, our label, submitted us for the tour, and to be honest, we didn’t expect to get

accepted. We are blown away to say the least. We’ve attended Vans Warped Tour shows in the past. One performance that sticks with me to this day is Andrew W.K., at the height of his Party Hard fame, putting on the most epic physical performance I can remember. We are hoping our unique blend of music and visuals sets us apart in a way that draws in new weirdos looking for something out of this world. Big thanks to Kevin Lyman for adding us this year and hope to see all you readers at one of our dates this summer!”

HUNDREDTH “This is us purely following only instinct and not thinking about anything else,” Chadwick Johnson, vocalist and guitarist for South Carolina’s Hundredth, comments on their newest release, RARE. Recently born again, the quartet shed the skin of their old hardcore sound and chased down the very souls of themselves. RARE is out June 16 via Hopeless Records and marks the first time that Johnson and company were “not thinking about money, not thinking about the business of the band, and not thinking about anything except music,” he says.

While their previous music featured pummeling breakdowns with earshattering visceral screams, Hundredth now have turned to finding ambiance through spacey guitars and driving rhythmic patterns. Johnson reflects, “Our producer, Sam [Pura], is of the school of thought that you have to pick drums or guitars and what’s going to be more prominent, because otherwise, they will compete the whole time.” The drums provided by Lee Hutchison are the central anchor of each song, allowing RARE to feel like it is constantly moving and pushing listeners forward in their lives instead of trying to pull them back.

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The idea of living in freedom has been ingrained in Hundredth since their inception, unlocked on RARE with a different soundscape.

Opening track, “Vertigo,” showcases Hundredth’s new sound beautifully, with snapping drums tumbling through guitars that use distortion as a breathing mechanism, creating layers of space that could never be tackled through the band’s previous howls. “I think by the time we went to the studio, it had set in that I had made the commitment to our band and myself that I wasn’t going to be screaming all over the record,” Johnson recalls. Writing lyrics for RARE was an easier process. “I had to think less,” Johnson states. “I had to just commit and be confident in what I had to say. I had to try more previously. On this record, everything is naturally what I wanted to say. There are things you can’t say while you are screaming or it just doesn’t sound as good.”

RARE has opened the door for Hundredth and, in particular, Johnson.

“There is a lyric on ‘Youth’ that says, ‘Go home, lock the door / Put on something you’ve heard before,’ alluding to wanting to find something I am familiar with,”

I N T E R V I E W W I T H V O C A L I S T / G U I TA R I S T C H A D W I C K J O H N S O N B Y S E A N G O N Z A L E Z he explains. “If I screamed that, it would feel trite and thin and boring to me. I feel like it took more effort in the past to write things I would be able to scream to, whereas this is what I’ve wanted to do the whole time. We were stuck inside of our own world.”

Hundredth were willing to take a step away from their previous easel and see an even greater world present itself. “Suffer” is a song that tackles becoming attached to feeling down and out because it’s better than feeling numb. The grueling concept is painted with winding guitar leads and an airy vocal presence, pulsing with a vibrant color spectrum in a unique sonic

sphere. RARE showcases Hundredth’s departure from their sound, ever accepting with the tangent of the closing track, “Departure.” Johnson says, “That word is just something that kept coming up in my head. Once we finished the vocals, we thought it was a perfect closing track and end to the record.”

For a band that’s almost a decade old to find new and different depths of creative space to expose showcases that art is ever transformative. At the root of Hundredth is the same glimpse of freedom that they instill within the community around them, their journey now equipped with a new soundtrack.

“There is a lot of me in it, and I kind of poured my heart out on this one,” Vincent Bennett comments about The Acacia Strain’s newest record, Gravebloom. The vocalist has been screaming over intense music with the group for 16 years, tackling themes relating to the human race and showcasing the incredibly dark essence of humanity. But for Gravebloom—out June 30 via Rise Records—Bennett reflected inward. “I just had a really bad year, and I had to get it out,” he explains. “The only way I know how to get it out is via lyrics and music. Gravebloom is finding life out of death, like a flower growing out of a grave.”

Much like previous Acacia Strain releases, Gravebloom kicks off with a gut-punching bullet point in “Worthless.” It sets up the album’s grieving tone with slow, driving guitars weaving dissonance through howls about Bennett’s selfworth, marked for death with

grueling rhythm scores. The atmosphere within the song echoes the band’s process for writing the record, which was done while on tour with Dying Fetus. “It was really stressful, because hotel rooms are not ideal creative places,” Bennett remarks. “It’s a cold, sterile, every-room-is-the-same thing, and it’s not a cabin in the woods.”

This icy shiver paces itself, grinding through each track with poise and incredibly dark energy. “Abyssal Depths” shines light on the idea of an ocean funeral, with Bennett discussing the aspects of sadness in that moment. “I wanted to convey that this is depressing and it is sad and it is lengthy and it is suffocating,” the vocalist states. The song opens with reflective guitars, quiet at first before becoming a deafening explosion of bombastic metal.

Matt Honeycutt of Kublai Khan offered his vocals to the song “Big Sleep.” Upon being blown

away by his friend’s vocal performance, Bennett realized that he indeed had something worthwhile with the track. “He is a really musically passionate human being,” he says of Honeycutt, “and it was really cool to see what he could do with what I had. I didn’t know if what I had was any good.”

The vocalist was forced to relive the dark inspiration behind the song while in the studio, further adding to the grasp of Gravebloom’s catastrophic ending. “It shines through,” Bennett says. “It ends the record, and people don’t know how to react, and they have to sit down and deal with it.”

With such a smothering sonic embrace established on Gravebloom, The Acacia Strain end the album with the nine-minute burner “Cold Gloom.” Emotionally, the song showcases the hell Bennett went through, finally giving him the space to find a cathartic escape. It was not easy and left Bennett in a wreck while performing the track, having to push through long lines of screamed lyrics while suffering from asthma. “The song ruined me,” he admits. “I think you can hear that in the delivery, because I actually felt like I was going to die when I was doing it.”

The Acacia Strain’s eighth record is also their most revealing, bleeding with a sorrow that can be heard. Bennett found a realm of mentality that made him able to push through the filth and unearth a record packed with punches of passion. “At this point, I don’t care if people hate the record, because I love it and I feel it,” Bennett states confidently. And that kind of feeling can never be undone.

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here are many traditionally masculine practices that the modern-day woman has taken back from the man—things like wearing pants, going to college, having opinions, existing, etc.—but one that’s often overlooked is swearing. Fittingly, one of the most fearsome and important of all profanities, the “F word,” is punk band War On Women’s favorite word: feminism.

The Baltimore, Maryland, co-ed group are gearing up to take the stage all summer long at Warped Tour, while simultaneously planning workshops on safer spaces training and comfortability in learning new instruments. Lead vocalist Shawna Potter says the band want to do more than just play; they want to make an impact on the scene.

“We’ve always been a band [who] put ourselves in front of potentially hostile audiences,” Potter says. “We are not just a band for the people who are like us. We’re willing to put ourselves on the frontline and take some of the heat, and hopefully, the more we’re out there, the more we challenge people, the more we let them see our anger at some of things women and queers have to go through, maybe it will make it easier for other bands.”

The band’s first record was a self-titled LP released via Bridge Nine Records in 2015, and War On Women will be playing it throughout the two-month long tour. While there will be new music in the making post-Warped, Potter laughs and says it’s because the band are “under the assumption that most people at Warped Tour haven’t fucking heard of us.”

She admits the band had to carefully consider the decision to head out on a tour with a roster of mostly cishet, white men, but clarifies that this isn’t just a tour issue—it’s a scene issue, which is why safer spaces training came into play. Covering everything from what to do when someone is following or harassing you or someone else at a show to what to do if someone spikes your drink, this training will

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be available at every Warped date this summer, funded through War On Women and sexual assault prevention expert Kira-Lynn Ferderber’s GoFundMe campaign.

“What if this person who is harassing you is well-known or in a band, and you don’t want to rock the boat?” Potter reflects. “All of these concerns keep coming up for our local scene, and I know it’s not just us. I thought, ‘What if we can bring this training and this active bystander intervention training to kids before sexism, racism, ableism, and transphobia get normalized?’”

One of the band’s guitarists, Brooks Harlan, will also be conducting a workshop on gear and where to begin when you’re starting a band. The workshop will be a completely judgement-free zone for people of all genders. The safer spaces workshop will be run by Ferderber and other experienced volunteers who will give talks, pass out pamphlets, and remain onsite since the band’s first priority is to play music. That doesn’t mean they’ll be onstage keeping quiet.

Those who have never seen War On Women should be prepared to hear songs raging against sexism, rape, catcalling, and more.

“I know that some people go to Warped Tour and it’s their first show,” Potter says. “What if we could tell them that sexism is not normal or OK, racism is not OK, transphobia is not OK? [We want] to give them actual tools, actual stuff to do when they see it [happening], before they’re even in the DIY punk club environment.”

To donate to War On Women’s safer spaces project, visit GoFundMe.com/SaferScenes2017!

PHOTO: NICK ZIMMER

PHOTO: JAMES ALVAREZ

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ew moments are quite as precious as reunions with things that we love and miss. For some, it is a long-lost pet or relative, and for others, a certain record or favorite t-shirt. For thrash metal fans, it is the sweet, sweet sound of weirdo thrash-punks Municipal Waste.

After the release of their last album, The Fatal Feast, in 2012, the band took time out for touring and to focus on other projects. Eventually, their side projects started taking off, one by one, and the band found themselves struggling to make time for their sweet, toxic madness. However, as the world continues to morph into a twisted “Twilight Zone” hellscape straight out of a Municipal Waste song, the band have reappeared like a vomit-covered beacon in the darkest of nights with the release of their sixth album, Slime and Punishment, out June 21 on Nuclear Blast Records.

During their time away from “the Waste,” the band’s members have primarily been focused on side projects like Brain Tentacles, BAT, Cannabis Corpse, and Iron Reagan. Their schedules may be busy, but they still tried to work toward creating a new record. “[The songwriting process began], like, five years ago,” vocalist Tony

Foresta explains. “We were kind of just, like, accumulating songs, and we had a record almost completely written.”

Despite their best effort, the band’s writing wasn’t going quite as they planned, and they executed a reboot. “We just scrapped the whole record, because we weren’t really into it,” Foresta admits.

“It was like a full band getting writer’s block or something for a minute.”

Though Municipal Waste’s decision to scrap a nearly-completed record seemed like a major setback, it also helped adjust their mindset. “I don’t think we were really into writing just for the sake of it; it has to be right,” Foresta asserts. “We don’t wanna put out something because we’re obligated to. We just wanna make sure when we do it, it’s good and we’re happy with it.”

Discouraged by their lack of productivity, the band executed their revitalization process by including a second guitarist, Nick Poulos of BAT, Volture, and formerly of Cannabis Corpse. “We’ve been talking about getting him in the band for years. It was just an ongoing discussion that never came to fruition

until we were just having trouble writing and needed a breath of fresh air in the band,” Foresta concedes.

Bringing Poulos helped fill out the band’s sound and gave them the exact motivation they needed to reignite the recording process. “Having him onboard and going on tour and making the band solid and just getting back into the swing of things last summer started making things way more interesting and [made] us want to get back out there and do it again,” Foresta confirms. “[We realized] how much people wanted a new record; they wanted us, they needed it. So, we thought we’d get our asses back in gear and bust the record out.”

The introduction of Poulos and touring just for fun helped stoke the band’s creative fires, but another large contributor to their reinvigorated mindset was simply being back together again. “It’s very comfortable. It’s like when you meet back up with your family for the holidays,” Foresta explains. “It’s fun when you’re away from it for a while

and you jump back into it. It makes things way more exciting and more interesting to do.”

Despite the record’s rocky journey, Slime and Punishment stands out big time as Municipal Waste’s stern confirmation that their sole goal remains fucking listeners up. “It still has the raw metal-punk edge to it that we like, but I think it’s tighter,” Foresta insists. “The songwriting’s still got a certain groove to it that’s a little different.”

“It’s still the same old Waste, though,” he affirms. “If people are looking for a new, groundbreaking, experimental thrash album, they’re barking up the wrong tree. We’re just trying to crush it, write songs about drinking, do what we do best, and do what our fans want and what we enjoy doing. [We’re] not trying to reinvent the wheel over here.”

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PHOTO: LORI GUTMAN

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ise Against rose to prominence in the mid 2000s, during the dark days of the Bush administration. The band’s anthemic songwriting and fiery sociopolitical rhetoric lit up the underground punk scene and FM radio waves alike. Throughout the last decade, they soared to extraordinary career heights as the U.S. seemed to course correct and began heading down a path of increased cultural enlightenment and equality.

Then, Donald Trump became president.

That’s when—in the immortal words of Martin Lawrence—shit got real for Rise Against, as they labored in the studio crafting what would become Wolves, the band’s eighth full-length album, released June 9 on Virgin Records.

“If anything, it sort of sharpened the focus of the band, of this record and our purpose,” frontman Tim McIlrath says of the 2016 election. “This was an election most people thought Hillary Clinton was going to win and that continued progressive politics would be happening. Gay marriage was finally legal. Affordable health care was a real thing. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was repealed. I imagined those victories would have continued under a Clinton administration. We would have continued to hold her feet to the fire, but we would still try for more progressive victories. So, I thought about that and wondered, ‘Where does Rise Against fit into this when there were so many positive things happening?’ Then, this election happened.”

Rise Against were already hard at work in the studio with producer extraordinaire Nick Raskulinecz—the wizard behind sonic miracles for Foo Fighters and Deftones, to name just a couple— when the grim news broke in November. “‘Mourning in Amerika’ was one of the first songs we put together, and it was a title I figured [out] at some point,” McIlrath reveals. “It was such a shock to many of us who believe in progressive politics and believe that Trump’s election meant the country was going to go in the wrong direction; it was a like this grieving process, this period of mourning.”

“I kind of went back to the record and thought, ‘OK, now this title makes sense,” he continues. “Not just mourning Donald Trump, but what he represents.

How it turns back the clock on racism, sexism, and xenophobia and anti-im-

migrant sentiment. All the monsters of racism and sexism that you’ve spent your whole life putting in cages, they’re always waiting to get out, they never go away. They’re always waiting to break free, and that’s kind of what we saw with this election. We saw this cage break open and saw these ideas of hate gain traction. People, whether they’re racist or just engaging in racist behavior, were emboldened.”

Once the initial shock of The Donald’s demoralizing Electoral College win subsided, the band quickly switched gears—and album titles. “The idea of mourning is way too defeatist for a Rise Against record,” McIlrath says boldly. “We’re not walking away with our tails between our legs. We don’t need to be sad about this. We need to be engaged, active, and aggressively attacking the problem. I was also creating a song called ‘Wolves’ that was sort of about that. I thought that this is the sentiment I want to get across.

Instead of crying in the corner somewhere about things that are out of your control, let’s be the wolves at the gates.

The wolves at the gates that are trying to get in and get back control.” With that, the title behind Rise Against’s phenomenal new album was born.

Wolves is everything the world needs in 2017. It’s both a bold and infectious rock record at a time when guitars feel like an endangered species on radio playlists and, most importantly, an inspired rallying cry against the tyrannical forces that hijacked the government last fall. The opening title track kicks things into high gear immediately, enticing the listener to storm the sadly not-so-metaphorical gates of corruption. “House On Fire” follows suit with perhaps the most addictive chorus on an album loaded with addictive choruses. Every note of music on Wolves—from the bright guitar melodies, pulsating basslines, and galloping kick drums to the ingenious backing vocals—all bolster the inherent catchiness in each song’s DNA. “The Violence” is equal parts blistering social commentary and grade-A rock ‘n’ roll jam.

“When we started this band, we were a small punk rock band playing garages and basements and bowling alleys and opening for whoever would take us,” McIlrath recalls. “When the band got bigger and sort of snowballed and radio started to embrace our songs, our fan base got wider. We started playing radio festivals; that was when we got put into an entirely different audience. They weren’t accustomed to the idea of a band talking about politics, so there was a lot of pushback, a lot of friction and feathers being ruffled. That’s kind of what made this band more exciting again, like, ‘Oh, this shit is more fun when we’re actually talking to people who don’t necessarily agree with us, who have minds that can be changed or opened.”

“We’re a band that likes to shake things up,” he elaborates. “We like to say, ‘We’re alarmed by this, and we think you should be alarmed by this too.’

Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail, and I’m watching someone like Trump shake everyone up and wake everybody up. With every word that Trump says, he’s converting somebody against him. With every move he makes, he’s turning the next generation against not just Trump, but the party that put him in power. We won’t see it tomorrow or maybe not in the next election, but the generation that’s embraced racism and sexism that calls back to the old days like Trump talks about, they’re slowing dying off. They won’t be there in the future, and in the meantime, Trump is planting seeds against that, and when those seeds grow, there’s going to be a huge sea change in politics in America. Watching Trump wake people up is exciting.”

Or as McIlrath screams on Wolves’ title track: “We are the wolves at the gates / Our numbers growing every day, yeah / But you can’t fight us all, no!”

On Wolves, Rise Against have struck the perfect balance between punk bombast and mainstream rock mastery. These tunes were designed to move crowds regardless of their political affiliations, but the passion and content of these songs is too real to be ignored. On Wolves, Rise Against are determined to get their point across.

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race yourself, the story goes like this: Back in the year of our Lord 1666, there was a well-respected Rabbi named Sabbatai Zevi. Zevi got it in his head that he was the Messiah on Earth and that humans weren’t being devout enough, which was why God wasn’t a more observable presence. So, in order to get God back into people’s lives, what did Zevi do? He ordered his adherents to start fighting, to start stealing, to sacrifice stuff, to have orgies, and to just go completely wild.

Enter Dwid Hellion—the mastermind behind Cleveland and Belgium-based band, Integrity—to finish the story, as he himself is a scholar of the occult. “Zevi decided that the only way that humanity was going to bring God out of hiding was one of two ways,” he begins.

“First, everyone on the planet decides to convert and believe in God and be righteous, and then, God would come down and say, ‘Finally! You fuckers have come around and understood why I gave you this great gift!’ Well, you know humanity as well as I do—that’s not going to happen.”

“So, second, Zevi inverted all of his beliefs,” Hellion continues. “They would have orgies, and they would murder, and they would do everything that was against their biblical teachings in order to scare God out of hiding. After that, Zevi went to Israel, demanded to be revered as the Messiah, and was dismissed as a lunatic.”

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The complete failure and abjection of humanity is nothing new in the Integrity discography. Ever since their first album, 1991’s Those Who Fear Tomorrow, the sorta-punk, sorta-metal, sorta-hardcore, really, really far-out band have been grimacing at this wretched race of creatures called humans—1995’s Humanity Is the Devil even included a 20-minute spoken word piece detailing just how loathsome people are.

Still, the theme has never been as targeted as it is on their Relapse Records debut, Howling, For the Nightmare Shall Consume, out July 14. For the release, Hellion worked closely with Dom Romeo of Baltimore’s Pulling Teeth and cranked out a double-LP of metal-influenced, trippy, dark music. Throughout the album’s nine tracks, Hellion observes the disgraces of humankind across the eons. Jesus Christ, Francis Bacon, and of course, Zevi, all are focal points, linked by their

search for a connection to the “divine”—no matter how one may define that ambiguous word.

“These stories, I don’t think any of them are entirely factual,” Hellion explains. “Any story that I or anyone else will tell you is going to be polluted with exaggeration or perspective—especially if they are translated to different languages.

To that end, I think the main intention with Integrity is interpretation; how you perceive it might be different than how the next person perceives it, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t substance to it.”

Indeed, one of the most difficult subjects to interpret throughout Integrity’s history is the band’s fascination with death cults. Charles Manson has gotten repeated shoutouts from the band, while Jim Jones and Shoko Asahara have each “earned” an Integrity mention. This continues through to Howling, For the Nightmare Shall

Consume. In the album’s art, humanity is represented as a demonic bearded man who bears more than a passing resemblance to several of those men. Yet, through these allusions, it’s never exactly clear if Hellion thinks that these death cult leaders are “good guys,” “bad guys,” or just remarkable people worthy of study.

“I think that in the context of religious movements, any organization or cult who are willing to go that far and make the greatest sacrifice that a human can make are the most dedicated,” Hellion says.

“That’s why it is the most interesting. When someone is willing to go that far with belief systems that override everything in your own personal nervous system, your own instinct, where every cell in your body is saying, ‘Don’t do this, this is absolutely destruction,’ and they move beyond that and do it regardless, I find that to be fascinating.”

“You see, my views are not trying to save the world,” he continues.

“I’m not trying to make a statement and say, ‘The world is bad, and you guys need to change, and I’m sad!’

There’s no need for me to join that choir. I’m really just expressing my views of how I see the world, how I view it, how I interpret it, personally. There is no hidden agenda.”

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he Swedish post-punk rockers of INVSN—pronounced Invasion—have a long history of shaking things up. Fronted by Refused ringleader Dennis Lyxzén, the band previously existed as The Lost Patrol Band—then Invasionen, before settling on their current moniker—and features a who’s who of Swedish punk mainstays, all bent on spreading their message of progressive social change through their rocking, anthemic tunes.

The band’s new album, The Beautiful Stories—released June 9 on Dine Alone Records—accomplishes just that, seamlessly blending sociopolitical angst with honest to goodness rock ‘n’ roll.

“I have this idea that art, culture, and music should be the beacons of political ideas and radical thoughts,” Lyxzén shares. “In my mind, I read books and listen to music, that’s kind of how I exist as a human.” He adds that the song “I Dreamt Music,” one of The Beau-

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tiful Stories’ most rollicking jams, “is very much a protest against the dumbing down of the world, of the political environment that we have.

I have hopes and aspirations that music and art can fill the ideas that politics left behind.”

“ART, CULTURE, AND MUSIC SHOULD BE THE BEACONS OF POLITICAL IDEAS AND RADICAL THOUGHTS” Lyxzén and company do a stellar job filling the cerebral void in society’s head with the seven infectious post-punk tunes assembled on their new record. Songs like “Immer Zu,” “This Constant War,” and the aforementioned “I Dreamt Music” meld the band’s ambitious agenda with incessant percussive beats, rhythms, and haunting melodies. INVSN’s newly-minted three-pronged vocal attack—split between Lyxzén, bassist Sara Almgren, and keyboardist Christina Karlsson—not only keeps the audience on their toes, but also helps

drive home the feminist message behind “Immer Zu” itself.

“When we did the last record, [2013’s INVSN], we went on tour, and Christina and Sara were singing backups,” Lyxzén explains. “When we started writing this record, one of the things I thought a lot about was how my voice has always been heard as the lead singer. In my mind, I kind of wanted everyone to be the lead singer. They sing lead not as much, but almost as much as I do. Whenever you hear a female voice or a different voice, the words and the meaning change a little bit and you get a different perspective.”

“The change between the voices keeps the record interesting,” he says proudly. “You never know what’s going to come next.”

When asked about riding the line between pop music sensibilities and radical progressive change, Lyxzén declares, “I’m not opposed

to music as escapism, because sometimes you need to get away from the bullshit this world provides, but we tend to fill our songs with lots of content.”

“Music could be and should be accessible to everyone,” he elaborates. “It has the power to reach so many types of people. It’s almost like a Trojan horse, where you grab people’s attention with whatever reference to pop culture they like and understand. The idea is that music can present a different way of thinking, a different way of being or perceiving the world. There’s a time and point where your trajectory was going the way the world set it out to go; then, you heard a record, you went to a show or met a friend, and all of a sudden, everything changes.”

“I think that’s the cool thing about music,” Lyxzén concludes. “It has the power to really change your trajectory in life into something different. I think that’s a really cool thing.”

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elf-described as sounding like “that time you spotted your creepy metalhead brother at ‘80s night,” Psychic Teens are brooding, alluring, and mysterious in a near-paranoid manner. In May of 2016, they released their third LP, NERVE, and here they are one year later with a wicked five-song EP called HEX, released in April via Hex Records.

After spending a great deal of time writing their last fulllength, drummer Dave Cherasaro says “the idea for this release was to work on a much more condensed timeline.”

Having only released LPs and singles in the past, the Philadelphia three-piece thought it was time to try their hand at something in-between. “These songs came pretty quickly once we had an idea of what direction we wanted to head in,” he shares. That direction is shoegaze that sounds dangerous, vocals that sound like Ian Curtis if he’d hit his 30s, and fuzzy post-punk that would feel right at home at a goth club.

Psychic Teens build their wall of sound with piercing guitar riffs, droning bass, heavy but soft drumming, and enough haze to hotbox a whole venue. “Each instrument fills out a particular sonic space to complement what the others are doing,” Cherasaro says. “It’s fun finding ways to do as much as possible with fewer parts.”

What’s really striking is the split between the songs: the first three are heavily steeped in soundscapes that inspire darker feelings, while the last two are brighter and somewhat dreamy. In response to that description, Cherasaro shares that the “songs have kind of always fallen into the noisy [and] angry or moody [and] spacious categories.” He also specifies that with each passing record, their moody counterparts have become more prevalent. Even on this shorter record, each decision was intentional. “The choice of words as well as the vocal delivery are very deliberately informed by our choice to segregate the mood and feel of these songs into these two halves,” Cherasaro elaborates.

Lyrical content, however, is somewhat of an afterthought and only come once the song has been constructed musically. “Basically, the last possible moment before I record vocals is when I finally have to commit words to these songs,” vocalist and guitarist Larry Ragone admits. “The music has always been the most important part, and the words I end up choosing are a direct result of how the completed instrumentation impacts me emotionally.”

That doesn’t mean there was no new ground broken on HEX. Psychic Teens’ frontman elaborates on the last track, “DUST,” noting, “Almost everything we’ve written that’s on the quieter side has had some sense of building to a release, and we made sure this one never reached that.” It’s important for bands to push themselves to try things that are outside of their comfort zone, and considering that the trio have written and performed live scores for “The Shining” and the psychological horror film “Dementia,” it’s clear that they’re no strangers to the strange and different.

Community is important for musicians, and Philadelphia has let it be known that there is a support structure steadfastly in place in their DIY music scene. Cherasaro reveals that because of the connections and friendships they’ve made, Psychic Teens have “gotten to play at some of the best house venues the city has seen, as well as some of the best ‘real’ venues around, run by likeminded people, like Johnny Brenda’s, Boot & Saddle, and Union Transfer.” He adds that because of this sense of camaraderie, the band were able to put out an LP as their first release instead of a demo or single, and they even shared a bill with The Dead Milkmen on Halloween in 2012.

PHOTO: DEVON SPINA

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The music matches the misery relayed in the lyrics. Indrio is honest, bluntly admitting, “I feel like my lyrics are pretty hopeless. The sad reality of life, death, and all that you lose along the way.

Politicians try to divide us and make it even harder for people to get by. It’s a fucked up world we live in, and that is the reality.”

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akland’s Necrot blazed a path through the East Coast and Midwest alongside Skullshitter between the 2016 release of The Labyrinth—which combined the band’s first three EPs—and that of their new impending monster, Blood Offerings.

Their first official full-length, the brutal, energetic album was released on June 9 via Tankcrimes. Ripping through a punishing classic death metal sound, Necrot are focused and unhinged, sharing members with the likes of Vastum, Watch Them Die, Saviours, Mortuous, and more.

“We had written a good chunk of the album before the tour and recorded Blood Offerings a few months after,” drummer

Chad Gailey states. That momentum is palpable. Blood Offerings packs a harsher punch with crisper production than the first LP. The first single, “Empty Hands,” desecrates eardrums while pummeling an ominous sound.

Vocalist and bassist Luca Indrio elaborates, “I think it sounds exactly like we wanted it to sound. Whatever it will transmit, we take full responsibility. It is death metal punk with a ‘90s death metal sound, down-tuned to B standard.”

As Gailey explains, Necrot “finished the recording, mixing, and mastering in January 2017.” Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer produced the record, with Brad Boatright handling the mastering.

“We’ve all known Greg for years,” Gailey continues. “When we go into Earhammer, it’s always easygoing. He listens to what we want and knows what he is doing. We have recorded almost all of the Necrot material with him and are happy with the results.”

“DEATH METAL PUNK WITH A ‘90S DEATH METAL SOUND, DOWN-TUNED TO B STANDARD” Indrio comments on the mastering, “I think Brad at Audiosiege adds the security that your album is going to sound good on all formats: vinyl, tape, and cd. I really like the way he mastered it while respecting the final mix we did with [Wilkinson] in Oakland, making it sound bigger without altering too much of the final mix we provided him.”

Another enticing element of Blood Offerings is the imagery on the cover and the vinyl, created by artist Marald Van Haasteren, someone who Gailey has long admired. The image depicts a rotted, cadaverous king being offered a dangling infant, filtered through sickly green. “I’ve always wanted Marald to do artwork for one of my bands,” Gailey says. “The first time I saw his work was for [defunct Montreal thrash metal band] After The Bombs, and I was really impressed. Then, seeing the art he did for other bands—Bolt Thrower, Slutvomit, Entrapment—made it clear that he was the one to go with.”

Tankcrimes issued the album on digital, CD, cassette, and four colors of vinyl— purple splatter, gold splatter, black, and gold—tucked inside a gatefold jacket with midnight black metallic foil stamping. “I’m pretty excited about the way the vinyl came out,” Gailey adds.

“The splatter editions look killer.”

Indrio concludes, “I am a vinyl fan myself, and the LP looks as good as it sounds.”

PHOTO: PEYOTE GUTIERREZ

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obody would call experiencing crippling depression and a manic break a blessing, but for Heartsounds vocalist and guitarist Ben Murray, that was his 2016. However, what he and his Oakland, California-based punk band, Heartsounds, made from these struggles—their fourth album, Dualistic Nihilist, released June 2 via Murray’s own Creator-Destructor Records—wound up being a benevolent gift to their fans and the punk community.

This follow-up to 2013’s Internal Eyes condenses the last three years—and one particularly bad one—into an epic, nonstop 20-minute burst. Lyrically, the concept song describes Murray’s darkest days in excruciating detail.

Sonically, the piece move the band forward in an “ambiguous” and “continuous” direction, Murray asserts.

It’s as much about Murray’s fight for his own mental health—and the help he got from friends and family who saved his life—as it is his band’s efforts to finish the “mock opera-esque” song they envisioned.

“Last year was the darkest year of my life, for sure,” Murray admits flatly. “I saw lows that I thought I could never reach—emotionally and financially—and I’ve come back stronger. […]

I did a lot of self-exploration, deep, kind of into darkness, and I came out happier and better.” He and his bandmates, vocalist and guitarist Laura Nichol—who is also Murray’s high school sweetheart, best friend, and cohort from their first band, the melodic death metal outfit, Light This City—bassist Bobby Taul, and drummer Trey Derbes, envisioned the song as “getting on a train and ending up somewhere else, like you’re not returning to the same places,” Murray says. The project itself is a vehicle to shine a light on those suffering with mental health or substance abuse issues and let them know they can escape from those dark places.

“I’ve been kind of depressive my whole life—like, severe depression.

It’s just been a part of my life since high school,” Murray shares. After going through a deep depression in late 2014, Murray says he stopped taking his medications “for way too long” and began “self-medicating.”

This “combination of bad chemistry […] threw me into a manic episode,” he adds. “It felt like one, big, insane trip, but I definitely wasn’t myself when I came out of my skin, and everyone around me knew it: my friends, family, everyone.” He knew he had to document what he’d been through. “To be able to realize, ‘Hey! I was planning to write a 20-minute concept song anyway,’ so now, lyrically, obviously, this is what this shit’s gonna be about! You know what I mean?” he says, finally able to laugh about it.

Despite the temporary damage he’d done to himself and to some of his friendships, it was that circle of people who cared about him who got him through it—even when times got so bad that Murray admits he considered suicide. “It’s so important,” Murray says of the people who “rallied around” him with “an amazing display of friendship, and love” to help pull him up and out of his emotional hole. “There have been studies and documentaries about a sense of community, and support is considered the most key factor to mental health and well-being.”

“All that kind of shit that sounds cliché and Hallmark-y, it’s all true,” he adds.

“For me, it was a lifesaver. I needed to be watched. I needed to be taken care of for a dark period there, and I was.”

Many people shy away from so publicly laying bare their emotional wounds, but Murray feels otherwise. “I’m not embarrassed by it,” he says of the experience. “I’m happy to share the story if it helps people that are going through something similar feel a little less alone—or [realize] this shit’s a little more common than they thought.”

Depression has been a part of Murray’s life since high school, but something much brighter has been too: his enduring friendship with Nichol.

They formed Light This City as kids— with dreams of “wanting to reach heavy metal stardom,” he laughs—and have played in Heartsounds together since 2009. Murray says he’s proud of their friendship and of the record they’ve teamed up to make. “She’s obviously been on the ride with me since we were 13,” he says. “We just get each other on a level that’s deeper than most.”

The band are in a good place now, and their chemistry is reflected in Dualistic Nihilist. So far, the album has been received warmly by fans, who Murray admits didn’t know what they were in for prior to its release. “We’ve thought a lot about how people will react, and bottom line, I think they’ll really like it,” he asserts. “Musically, it’s the most intense, mature, most experimental stuff we’ve done, kind of risky, with some of the most catchy melodies we’ve ever written.”

“I think it’s the best record we’ve written,” he concludes.

After having gone through it all, Murray admits he’s stoked about Heartsounds doing headlining East and West Coast tours this summer, and he’s looking forward to the future.

“We’re in a great place,” he assures, “and I can easily say we’re pumped for another 10 years and another four records.”

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I wanted to create an anthem for us and for our fans that hold those values. So, that’s where ‘Oath’ and ‘The Crucified’ came from.”

Hart has been straight edge since 1994, and there’s a good chance many Eighteen Vision fans have been on this earth for a shorter period of time than Hart has been abstinent. He laughs, “That’s cool, but somewhat depressing at the same time.”

Expectations can be a bitch, but they can also be a blessing.

No one would have anticipated that giants of the ‘00s metalcore scene, California’s Eighteen Visions, would reunite, let alone with a record as heavy and downright vicious as XVIII. Released June 2 via Rise Records, the album bucks the band’s career path towards hard rock in a big way, featuring some of the best breakdowns and riffs of their career. Clearly, guys over 30 can mosh too.

Initially, Eighteen Visions’ reincarnation seemed destined to fail.

Vocalist James Hart shares that restarting the band was full of challenges. “We started writing some music in 2012, mainly me and [guitarist] Keith [Barney],” he begins.

“Then, [bassist] Mick [Morris] ended up passing away [in 2013], and we all just felt that the timing wasn’t right, and it would be in poor taste to carry on in those circumstances. In 2014, we briefly touched base again about doing it. For us, it was more about the creative side of it: the writing, recording, and releasing new music. It wasn’t necessarily about hammering it out on the road, doing a big tour, and playing a bunch of shows. We were at a time in our lives where we were just trying to fill that creative void, and unfortunately, we couldn’t get the type of contribution we wanted

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from everybody at that point, so it fell to the wayside.”

“Back in September [of 2016], Keith reached out to me, that he wanted to finish some of these songs that we had been working on,” he continues. “We didn’t get into the whole Eighteen Visions thing right off the bat. I think it was maybe tossed around a little bit, but considering the first two attempts at resurfacing the band [failed], it didn’t seem like it would be a probable thing. We just went about it thinking if we could just find someone to put out an EP or play a couple of shows, that would be rad.”

“As the recording process started moving along, the songs started to feel more and more like Eighteen Visions songs,” Hart shares. “It had come to a point that we would have been fooling ourselves had we put this album out under a different band name, with three [previous] members, with the similar sound of Eighteen Visions songs of old, and playing some of our old songs live.

At that point, it just made sense to carry on and continue the band. It was a touchy subject and was kind of hard to bring up because [former guitarist] Ken [Floyd] wasn’t able to be a part of this, but once we addressed the elephant in the room, it just felt like the right thing.”

XVIII sounds like a love letter to the band’s entire discography: it’s as heavy as they’ve been for a long time, mostly piss and vinegar, but

there’s some melody in there for seasoning. On the writing process, Hart expands, “At this point, it’s entirely about that creative outlet and having fun with it. When I talked with Keith, I brought up that this kinda sounds like if you took the best parts of every Eighteen Visions album and put it together.

There is some melody, but it’s darker, more aggressive, and dirtier. We naturally created that gritty vibe.”

Hart explains that he was not only comfortable screaming more than fans may expect, he actually wanted fewer melodies. “I was so into the aggressive delivery, going back to the screamier vocals, and was having so much fun with it that I was going back to find places where I could put more of that,” he says.

“That was the fun of it for me. We all had fun going back and taking ourselves to these places we’ve been to musically throughout our careers and just unleashing hell.”

The music encapsulates the band’s long history, but Hart mentions that the band also wanted to incorporate some of their longstanding values into XVIII. “Ten years ago to now, we’ve always been a straight edge band,” he explains. “Every member has been straight edge, and that’s always been important to us. I wanted to touch on it again, because 10 years later, we still keep those same values. A lot of people would expect that, going into your late 30s, those things aren’t going to be as important to you anymore. So,

Another value the band appreciate is the sense of community they enjoyed early in their career. Hart laments that he doesn’t see that kind of unity much anymore. “Back then, there was such a tight-knit group. All our bands knew each other,” he says. “Everybody got along.

Occasionally, people would butt heads, but those people were asked to leave, because acceptance was what our scene was all about. We had friends that were straight edge and those that weren’t, friends that used and abused drugs and those that didn’t, but we were all there for our love for hardcore, metal, and punk rock. Today, there’s not much of that around anymore. Some of these bands can’t play with these other bands, because they are too different or don’t necessarily have the same ideas or values. It’s just not as tight-knit as it used to be.”

Perhaps Eighteen Visions’ return to action will inspire the younger generations to reinvigorate the interconnectedness that makes scenes so strong and enduring.

After all, based on the strength of their unexpected—and unexpectedly excellent—XVIII, the band are poised to be around for a long time.

One of the least likely reunions has produced one hell of a comeback record.

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PHOTO: MIKI MATSUSHIMA

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ight from the get-go, Boris’s latest behemoth of a record, Dear—due out July 14 via Sargent House— moves immeasurably to the point. With a few deft backbeats and a semi-fill, then a simmering wave of crushing doom, the Tokyo legends have listeners right where they want them: in the midst of an immense work of art.

Like a deeply planted root—and like the record’s many predecessors—Dear is about the physicality of movement: it’s flashing dimension, pitched grain, and organic nature. Boris may reach for the stars, but the band are locked firmly within the grounds of Mother Earth: the reality of birth, death and vision, a means toward oneness. “Music is something that’s meditative and spiritual,” bassist, guitarist, and vocalist Takeshi notes. “It constantly aligns with reality, and the deep grooves we find— particularly on Dear—feel very comfortable and natural. We’re constantly searching for the dissonance and tranquility between each sound and strive towards a more comprehensive catharsis.”

Dear feels infinitely smooth in a way few records do. The album is crushingly heavy, but light and airy and tender as well. The totality is a full body experience. Dear can be ugly and it can be beautiful—a duality fans have come to expect from the diverse Japanese art rockers.

The record comes out in the group’s 25th year of existence: both a lifetime and the blink of an eye. “Sure seems like it,” Takeshi laughs. “It really has flown by. Releasing Dear at this point in our career is truly special. There’s something deeply emotional about being able to deliver a meaningful album to listeners. Looking back, there weren’t any songs like the ones on Dear when we first started the band. I’m happy knowing that we’re moving forward.”

What Boris have never been afraid of is change. The band have constantly sought new directions, and with each successive record, a new wave of force, a new way to feel, and a new way to look. While other bands often get comfortable with a fixed and appreciated sound, Boris get antsy. They’re like the Marcel Duchamp of heavy metal and punk, making singular works of art and moving on, never fixating on one specific idea.

The group have collaborated with many immense forces over the years. Like shadows hovering by their side, they retain these experiences, using them as direction. “All the artists we’ve worked with over the years, I feel we’ve been pulled to each other in a sort of ‘inevitable’ manner,” Takeshi admits. “The good thing about collaborating is that we get to experience the other artists’ work firsthand, so it’s easier to share another’s point of view. Rather than learning, it’s more like your body vibrates and resonates right next to the other person.

Through that experience, we’re able to acquire perspective and methodology and understand each other without having to explain ourselves by using words.”

That’s why listeners who don’t speak Japanese can understand completely—or at least think they can—every note and every lyric of a Boris song. It’s all about the universal oneness.

The classic drone and tactile nature that Boris have always been revered for is the perfect symbol of this oneness: drone is the universal language, the feeling and color that attach to each object in the vast universe.

It is the purest art, and Boris

attack compositions with this in mind. “As we build a song, we’re able to visualize the view from the stage,” Takeshi explains. “Visual elements have the strongest impression on the audience. Whenever we jam out, the visual is constantly in our mind. Rather than chords and fret position, it’s more about the color that we can feel and mental scenery that we can convey. We inflate the image and dialogue that blooms from a sound.”

The world is lucky to have Dear, one of Boris’ strongest and most intense works to date. Each time the band have a vision, it is an eternal moment in space. Experience it and transcend, because every creation is unique. “There was a time in late 2014 when I couldn’t see a future,” Takeshi admits. “It was during that time that this album began. It was based around the really simple idea that I just wanted to create music to leave behind—and I’ll keep leaving music behind. I’m only interested in new things. I don’t have time to look back or be sentimental.”

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V

ocalist and guitarist Garrett Dale had been with his band, Red City Radio, for nearly a decade before he first thought of putting out a solo record. “This might come as a surprise to some, but I’m a pretty shy guy,” Dale says. “There are so many songs that I’ve written and forgot about over time due to a lack of self-confidence. With Red City Radio, it’s a lot easier since it’s a group effort. We all play important roles.”

But Dale turned 30 this spring and is using that milestone to celebrate a new chapter in his life. “I am a young man with a hell of a lot of music on the way,” he says. “I’m tired of hiding. Get ready!”

The band were not even a little bit nervous about Dale stepping out on his own. In fact, they were supportive of their bandmate with every step. “We in Red City Radio support each other on and off the stage,” Dale explains. “We all have positive things we work on besides the band. [The band’s members’] hard work in their respective fields has truly inspired me to be more active in art, to take more chances, and sing the shit out of some songs.”

“We cool. We tight. And we are as active as ever,” he adds.

His album, the Two Ts EP, came out digitally on May 26, which also happens to be Dale’s 30th birthday. Red Scare Industries handled the release, and will put out a proper 7” in July.

Lest anyone think these were simply orphaned Red City Radio songs, the three tracks on the release were always intended for a solo effort. “I write a lot of music. I love to create, but if I considered every piece of music I com-

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pose [to be] for Red City Radio, then we would be a really weird band,” Dale laughs. “As I do support ambitious creative choices in art, I don’t believe that would be a natural progression for us. If you look close enough, you’ll be able to see where we’re goin’. We are a fucking rock ‘n’ roll band!

We pride ourselves on putting on a punk rock show to a high-energy crowd of people. And as we will surely change over time here and there, I can guarantee that Red City Radio will be a band you can rely on musically.”

“I’M TIRED OF HIDING. GET READY!” The songs on Dale’s EP are rooted more in classic outlaw country and Americana, with just enough rock swagger to remind you who’s singing them. “I don’t want to confine myself to one creative output,” Dale asserts. “I believe it is a good thing for not only my band, but myself to be more ambitious and active with my life and music. I’m not a painter, I’m not a graphic designer, I don’t sculpt or whatever, this is it. And if I love music as much as I say I do? I should stop keeping it all to myself and share it.”

“With the Two Ts EP, I will be able to show the eclectic musical landscape that has been a part of me since birth,” he concludes. “This will be the first of many.”

Along with working on new music, both solo and with Red City Radio, Dale will be touring the East Coast with The Flatliners this summer, July 7 through July 17.

PHOTO: CARSTON ANIKSDAL

T

his is the era of endless reboots, prequels, sequels, and prequels to the sequels, but what is often lost in these forms of re-creation is what made the original works so endearing. Copying a style or feel often results in empty enjoyment. Norway’s Execration certainly understand how to righteously reboot classic extreme metal styles, though their excellent fourth LP and Metal Blade Records debut, Return to the Void—due out July 14—also stands completely on its own. It’s like the “Stranger Things” of the retro metal world: telling a unique story with loving homages to the past. Oh, and this record seriously kicks ass.

Using retro death as a base, the group have successfully expanded their sound further with each successive record, culminating in an album that feels more like it has distilled the essence of metal rather than any particular subgenre’s style. Guitarist and vocalist Chris Johansen agrees, “It’s a hodgepodge of elements of metal—and

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prog and other music—we enjoy, with a clear preference for the vintage stuff, but without being a ‘retro’ band.’”

“Specifically, for this album, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were able to convey our vibe in a tighter format,” he continues. “Both our two previous albums, [2011’s Odes of the Occult and 2014’s Morbid Dimensions], were double-LPs, and we decided early on that it was time to limit ourselves to a single disc. That goal imposed some restrictions on songwriting that led us down some different paths.

We also consciously put in more clean parts; this is something we talk about for each album, but never seem to do as much as we’ve planned.”

The band seem to have a philosophical view of what it means to be a “metal band,” like Execration scientifically looked at what makes extreme metal fun, exciting, and still invigorating after all these years. Return to the Void masters the art of metal.

Johansen explains the band’s sonic evolution, saying, “We’ve grown less and less fixated on genres over the years. When we started out, we were all about death metal, partly because there were very few death metal bands around in our part of the world. Some 10-plus years later, we identify more with just ‘metal.’ We like a lot of different things, and our sound exists somewhere in between all of our collective musical influences. Even since the early days, atmosphere and groove—as opposed to pure machine-precision technical performance—has been very important to us. It still is, but ‘Is this (death) metal enough?’ no longer is.”

Lyrically, the record uses retro-styled philosophical and Lovecraftian science fiction to discuss the state of the world through the lens of the otherworldly. “We live in a time where a lot of science fiction is basically becoming reality,” Johansen asserts, “and this poses some interesting opportunities, as well as challenges, for humans and society at large and, in turn,

provides artists with new perspectives to ponder in their work.”

“Return to the Void is probably the closest we’ve been to a concept album,” he adds. “It deals with the mysteries—as in ‘as yet unexplored’—of the vast space that surrounds our little planet and presents some thought experiments on life and death beyond our time and place in the universe. It is quite clearly influenced by all of us consuming more and more science fiction over the last few years.

We wanted a lyrical theme that could provoke the kind of haunting darkness that would complement our music without going through the most worn-out clichés of the genre, and the infinity of time and space beyond that which we occupy provides a pretty great canvas for that.”

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o this day, death metal continues to evolve in style and sound, becoming more experimental, its brutality mixing with intricate technicality. The genre’s many varied bands take different approaches, some blending adrenaline-fueled shredding with prog-like shifting time signatures, while others incorporating different genres of music into the mix.

Origin formed in the late ‘90s, creating one of the death metal’s most brutal and devastating acts. Over the past 20 years, each release from the band has been a technical monster in heaviness and chemistry. On their seventh studio album, Unparalleled Universe—slated for release on June 30 via Nuclear Blast Records—they continue to show off their ability to create death metal that expands its sound.

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“Origin has, from the beginning, been an ever-expanding and contracting musical entity,” vocalist Jason Keyser shares.

“While noticeably distinct as a band, each album has its own distinct sound and style. We are more than happy to have a sound for everyone throughout the years, while still creating the music we ourselves want to hear.”

Keyser states that Unparalleled Universe kicks off a new era for the band. In the world of death metal, Origin have become one of the more progressive acts, shifting their style on each new release, fluctuating with each work’s structure to create something new. In comparing the album to their previous work, Keyser says, “[2014’s] Omnipresent could be looked at as a tech-death rock opera, with a continuous ebb and flow connected thematically from start to finish. Unparalleled Universe, on the other hand,

returns to individualized songs, each a heart attack in its own right.”

Thematically, the album goes beyond the realm of horror lyricism, touching upon more philosophical subject matter.

“Lyrically, most of the songs are about the struggle to understand the role of consciousness in regard to time and motion,” Keyser says. “Where and why do we fit in the grand scheme of wholly indifferent mechanisms of the universe? Is time fluid because we perceive it that way, or do we exist as endless incremental snapshots of time, forever frozen and stationary?”

To match these ideas, Origin craft their instrumentation to reflect a metallic,

adrenaline-ridden brutality, playing to shifting structures and styles for constant energy. Blistering drum work meets guitar playing that moves from annihilating shreds to intricate pacing and electrically vibrant solos. The album pulsates with a life and cosmic energy that beat with a rapid heartrate, changing up tempo and sound to keep listeners in wonder. Keyser shares that much of the progressive technical elements are thanks to guitarist and vocalist Paul Ryan. “He will stew on and churn up the riffs and song structure on our off-time,” Keyser explains. “We all contribute our respective elements and never really have to dictate anyone else’s roles, because we are all basically on the same page.”

Twenty years is quite a long time to play such relentlessly brutal music. Yet, it is because of death metal that Keyser and the guys find constant joy in their work.

Origin have continued to bring fresh air into the genre, with Unparalleled Universe being just the latest shining example. The band show no signs of slowing down, as Keyser makes it clear, “We will keep evolving and growing, hopefully keeping old fans happy and gaining new ones. We are everywhere and nowhere.

Hail space.”

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T

he act of unmasking someone typically evokes shocked reactions to formerly hidden horrors, but sometimes, it can reveal the beauty in the grotesque. Such is the case for Illinois four-piece Sworn In’s incredible third record, ALL SMILES, out June 30 via Fearless Records. Dealing with internal and external anguish—and potentially calling it quits—the album reveals a much more honest form of Sworn In. “We took a more genuine, straightforward, honest approach, both musically and lyrically,” vocalist Tyler Dennen says. “It was the result of the band having a smack to the face by reality over the course of 2016. We were really inactive, kinda on the border of breaking up. [Drummer] Chris [George] started writing for what we were planning to be a self-funded EP. It was going to be—not so much a lastditch effort, because we had already jumped ship, but we figured we would go out with a bang.”

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he didn’t want to be an actor playing a part anymore. “When I wrote the lyrics to [Sworn In’s 2013 debut LP] The Death Card, I was 19, and I don’t remember one time sitting down and writing,” he says.

“That shit just came out, and there was no thought about it. That was 100 percent what I call on this record ‘The Bad Bad Man.’ That’s the name that I came up with for that [uninhibited] part of myself. […] That is a pretty huge theme on the record: accepting and acknowledging the bad and the good, and more specifically, not ignoring those parts, because I lost total control when I did.”

Dennen admits that he hated what he was writing during that time, but hearing the new album’s title track proved instrumental in opening himself up.

“That’s when I started getting a little spark back,” he recalls. “This is what I’ve always wanted the band to sound like. It didn’t jump off from there, but there’s actually a version of that song loosely titled ‘Panic Attack’ that we recorded with a friend of ours. It’s the same instrumental with different lyrics—like ‘I don’t want to die so young’ yada yada—just a bunch of fake bullshit, trying to convince myself that I was [able to be] positive.”

“The moment it clicked and became ALL SMILES to me was two days before we headed out to record,” he continues. “I was sitting in my room. I had turned off all the lights, turned off the WiFi, put up some incense. I put caps lock on and put on what is now ‘DON’T LOOK AT ME,’ and that was the first song I came up with. From there, it was like a faucet that I couldn’t really turn off.” That must have been some damn good incense…

Each of the record’s song titles is in all caps. “I would not budge on that,” Dennen says. “Historically, my lyrics were very self-deprecating. Often, I would perform the words from the perspective of somebody who’s a victim or who is me, but isn’t me, but is me. With that came a lot of dancing around certain terms and twisting words to try to get the listener to try to understand the feelings I’m trying to translate, rather than this unhinged all-caps honesty.” Of the album’s title, Dennen explains, “ALL SMILES was the culmination of feeling so insecure and doubting of my own feelings and thoughts that the only thing that could come out was a smile.” He adds, “It also touches on how smiles can be used to manipulate others and yourself.”

In early 2017, Dennen moved back in with his dad and became quite self-reflective. “It led me to think how an actor will [research a role] in order to most accurately depict what they are speaking of,” he shares, “to get the most firsthand experience and truth before they go and put it out to the world.” Dennen realized

ALL SMILES is Dennen deciding to no longer hide behind a mask—yet the image on the album’s cover looks like just that. Dennen says it’s no accident. “I was a Christmas party with my girlfriend last year,” he begins. “In the bathroom, they had this painting. I saw this horribly fucking haunting toddler girl’s face in this painting, and it looked so bleak and dark. I decided I needed to take a picture of that face. The album’s art took on a number of changes and manipulations, but the cover is how I view that bathroom painting. The eyes, the mouth, and the lack of the middle of the face is intentional and descriptive of the way that people wear masks.”

Sworn In are much better off with an unmasked Dennen at the helm. Lyrically fierce and musically sharp, ALL SMILES is not only the band’s best work to date, its potent fury and melody make for a record that sticks with the listener and hints at further greatness to come. Turns out, these bad bad men make some very good music.

PHOTO: JOHN SISK

O

ver the past two decades, Dying Fetus have basically reigned supreme within the extreme metal underworld. Their name has become synonymous with brutal, uncompromising death metal, perfecting a potent mix of jaw-dropping technical shred and barbaric, caveman simplicity. They’ve got the riffs, the grooves, and one of the most distinctive death growls in the business.

It’s been a long five years since the band’s last masterclass in brutality, 2012’s appropriately titled Reign Supreme, all but cemented Dying Fetus’ status as modern day legends. Well, the Fetus boys are back and more punishing than ever before. Their eighth full-length album, Wrong One To Fuck With, drops June 23 via Relapse Records and proves to the world that Dying Fetus are indeed— exactly what the title suggests.

Right off the bat, Wrong One To Fuck With’s graphic album art—depicting a grisly murder scene and the band’s old-school logo—lets the listener know they’re in for a wild ride. “We needed a strong title, an intimidating album title,” drummer Trey Wil-

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liams explains. “We tossed around a few ideas, but we settled on naming the album after the song ‘Wrong One to Fuck With.’ We chose to use the old logo after we saw the album cover. When we saw the art, the old logo just made sense.”

The return of the nigh-incomprehensible splatter logo is vintage Dying Fetus, straight out of the band’s Grotesque Impalement days—before the band became a technically proficient juggernaut in the 2000s, preferring to just bash their instruments to pieces. “It was also our way of taking the whole album idea over the top,” Williams shares. “We are doubling down on death metal this time around.”

Opening track “Fixated on Devastation” begins with a blitzkrieg of guitar notes and pummeling drums before transitioning to an infectious, neck-snapping groove for the ages. This is what Dying Fetus do best, folks: unmerciful shred meets prehistoric Neanderthal jamboree.

Wrong One To Fuck With finds the band nailing these two distinct elements like never before. “A wellthought-out song that flows and

feels right was important to us,” Williams says of the band’s writing process. “Groove and melodies that will burrow into your mind was key to us. Tech for the sake of tech, we’ve done that before.”

The blast beats and insane growls are there, but it’s the little unexpected nuances that lurk throughout this record that help it shine amongst the sea of death metal clones Dying Fetus helped inspire. For instance, “Die with Integrity” and “Weaken the Structure” have some of the raddest dive-bomb solos straight out of the Jeff Hanneman playbook, adding yet another weapon to Dying Fetus’ deadly sonic arsenal. “[Vocalist and guitarist] John [Gallagher] did some sick solos,” Williams gushes.

“He recently started using a Floyd Rose Tremolo again. So, I think he was taking advantage of that addition to his guitars.”

Years of touring and the seven studio albums already under their belts have honed the band’s musical chops, and Wrong One To Fuck With proves Dying Fetus’ songwriting prowess is sharper than ever. This, coupled with the massive prepro-

duction effort the band launched after their Reign Supreme tour cycle concluded, explains the secret to their reinvigorated sound. “This time around, we did all our own preproduction. I personally had to learn how to work the recording software,” Williams reveals.

“During the writing process, we would put any promising ideas into the computer and try out different arrangements. We tried to have each song have their own identities. After music was written, we named songs and based lyrics off of the names.

[Bassist and vocalist] Sean [Beasley] did all the lyrics, both John and Sean contributed music, and I wrote drums and did all the edits.”

The end result is a punishing yet strangely diverse and catchy record that remains completely brutal in every sense of the word. It’s hard to imagine a band hitting yet another career high more than 20 years into their career, but Dying Fetus continue to gleefully piss into the mainstream and set new standards for death metal.

So, like, don’t fuck with them.

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INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR FRANK LORD

BY JAMES ALVAREZ

I

f you’re a member of the punk rock faithful—or have been inhabiting Earth for the last four decades—there’s a good chance that you’re down with the Ramones.

If not, what the hell is wrong with you? The hallowed work of Joey, Johnny, Tommy, Dee Dee, and co. is in our collective lifeblood. Nobody understands this better than author Frank Lord, the man behind “Damone Ramone: A Rock and Roll Betrayal,” a Bizarro World fictional biography of the band in which the Ramones are actually brothers, told from the perspective of their deranged, long lost sibling, Damone.

Lord’s book takes an old concept— the idea that the famous punk icons were actually blood relatives—well beyond left field, past even the confines of interdimensional space.

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“I read a comment under a Ramones article where a guy said that when he was young, he pictured the Ramones growing up in some insane dysfunctional household in Queens,” Lord explains. “He’d thought they were really brothers, just like I had. I think a lot fans did, especially back when information wasn’t readily available. So, I thought I’d try and make that vision come to life.”

Only Lord’s tale allows Damone, the band’s lovable but stark raving mad younger brother, to get his story of drugs, deceit, cosmic orchestras, and mind-boggling amounts of masturbation out into the open. Lord describes Damone as a “megalomaniac as narrator, a pompous ass that oscillates wildly between narcissism and self-ha-

tred.” Damone is the man responsible for the otherworldly genius that was the Ramones’ early catalog, whose advanced, out of body musical arrangements—such as the phenomenally titled, “Masturbate Me Immediately Prior to My Surgery” composed using souped-up sewing machines—were stolen by his greedy brothers and bastardized into the punk rock anthems the world knows today.

At times, Damone’s actions range from schizophrenic to a savant-like Forrest Gump persona, but through it all, he remains a defiant and fascinating character to the core. “It was great fun to put him in all these ludicrous predicaments,” Lord says, “and although he goes through tough times, he never surrenders his independence and he never compromises his ideals or his art. I tried to make sure that Damone had a consistent underlying logic for everything he does and says, so even his most lunatic tangents are based on—to his way of thinking—sound reasoning. I hoped that the reader would think, ‘Why am I somehow agreeing with this maniac?’”

And agree with him you might, especially when this ill-begotten Ramone rants about his brothers’ great achievements representing the apex and simultaneous destruction of rock music. “As for [Damone’s] assertion that the Ramones are the end of rock ‘n’ roll, I’m of two minds,” Lord reveals.

“On the one hand, rock seems like an art that’s perpetually renewing and will always carry the same spirit, whatever its form. On the other hand, I also partially agree when Damone suggests that people who said, ‘Hey, I can do this,’ after hearing the Ramones had the entirely wrong reaction, because after the Ramones, there’s nowhere to go. This relates to the idea of the Ramones being rock ‘n’ roll in its absolute form, like a pure element that can only be sustained for a short time—for example, over four albums. Even the Ramones seemed, in a way, kicked out of the kingdom after [1978’s] Road to Ruin.”

“Damone Ramone” is both a fascinating character study of a worldclass space-case and a hilarious

take on some of the most beloved icons of the 20th century. When he isn’t raising hell out in the world, Damone is raising hell with his brothers at home, interacting with each of original Ramones members in his own unique way. Nothing tops his altercations with his oldest brother and de facto band leader, Johnny; he is the hyper aggressive Abbott to Damone’s outlandish Costello. “His was a lonely office. Someone needed to step up and organize, keep the machine functioning,” Lord says of Johnny Ramone’s reputation as a militant hardass. “He’s not supervising accountants here, he’s managing rock musicians—individualists, bohemians, wildmen. Not easy.”

Whether you walk away loving, hating, or being completely baffled by Damone Ramone’s insane journey through almost-rock-stardom, he’s certainly a character you won’t ever forget. “I hope that he ultimately comes off as a strong character rather than a pitiable one, despite some of the holes he falls in,” Lord says. “He is a Ramone after all, and wholly dedicated to the punk ethos.

I imagine if we ran into him now, he’d more willingly embrace the term ‘punk’ to describe his uncompromising lifestyle than he would when his tale begins and he’s an avowed enemy of rock ‘n’ roll.”

HIRS: YØU CAN’T KILL US: GET BETTER RECORDS There’s really nothing more powerful than Philly collective HIRS. The group go after it—physically, ideologically, and technically—like few others.

Their newest slab of insane pressure, YØU CAN’T KILL US, has an apt title.

For all of us out there feeling pretty fucking horrible about the current state of the world, HIRS stand as a symbol of righteousness. They give us a quick pause, reminding us of the infinite power of individuality. Get Better Records is an amazing label that provides bands and artists with a safe space to be themselves. The tech-grindqueer-punk-thrash of HIRS is infinitely at home there—a special band for a special label. Get this!

FUNERALIUM: OF THROES AND BLIGHT: CALIGARI RECORDS Paris-based funeral doom behemoths, Funeralium, send the galaxy into reshape with each colossal breath they forge. The band collapse the universe, stretch it out, and sprinkle evil stardust onto every poor star they encounter.

Those scintillating spheres of hydrogen grow with mighty ascendance, though, for Funeralium are a powerful and unique force: as slow and doomy and they are quick and present. When the band’s 20-plus-minute tracks gear up after long and glacial interludes, it’s as if some epic time monster—think Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son”—is fighting with the hot and steamy thunderbolts Zeus is slinging from above. Heavy stuff indeed.

DESERT BEATS: SELF-TITLED: BABY TOOTH RECORDS The mystical desert is a place of psychedelic oneness. From The Doors to Kyuss to Jesus Christ himself, the vast and eternal landscape is a place of rock refuge: the spot to dream yourself free. Tucson retro rockers, Desert Beats, are very much a desert-invested sort of band. The group’s awesome sound drips with cactus philosophy, old-timey rock ‘n’ roll, and a fearless SST Records-ish timeless circuitry. Lead singer and bandleader Randall Dempsey croons like some madcap ‘50s mystic: a visionary and a punk.

The band’s self-titled debut is a trippedout classic, all yellow, wild, spacey and wonderful. This is your summer trip, man!

YLANGYLANG: LIFE WITHOUT STRUCTURE: CRASH SYMBOLS Montreal-based experimental new wave outfit, YlangYlang, have a unique frame of mind. It’s like listening to your favorite Jean-Luc Godard film backwards, with The Orb handling the remote control. This is some lush and abstract pop, as beautiful as it is expressive. Catherine Debard is the artist behind the music, and she really gets after it in full-on highart mode. Compositions swirl from dream-pop glee and ambient scatters to dark corners and metaphorical apexes. The dreams and visions of Debard are placed ever so abundantly throughout, like some star-map of the infinite inner-child, sparkling sharply across the diamond night sky.

This cassette has the best ambient compositions I’ve heard all year—so wide, far, and abundant, it’s likely to put you out to Andromeda.

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EPs FACE TO FACE: “SAY WHAT YOU WANT” B/W “I. ME. MINE.”: FAT WRECK CHORDS

For their ninth studio album, Protection, Face To Face returned to Fat and were met with strong support from fans both old and new. After a subsequent tour, one might think that these guys might be pumping the breaks on output—but one would be incorrect. While most bands put out singles to drum up excitement for an upcoming album, Face To Face did just the opposite: grabbed a song that nearly met the cutting room floor, paired it with a track from a track from Protection—“Say What You Want”—and released it several months later on May 7. They also went back to their roots, hitting small clubs across the nation—and beyond—on the Econo-Live Tour. –Kayla Greet

THE HOMELESS GOSPEL CHOIR: NORMAL 7”: A-F RECORDS

The Homeless Gospel Choir—aka Derek Zanetti—released Normal, a new 7”, on June 9 in advance of a new LP set to surface this fall. “Normal is a conversation that I continue to have with myself and with others as I grow older in regard to the idea of what normal is: am I it? Is anyone it?” Zanetti asks. “I wish when I was a teenager someone would’ve told me that I’m never going to be normal, that I’m never gonna look like them or talk like them or act like them or have friends like them. That the beauty is that some of us are weirdos. And we’re not alone.” –John B. Moore

THE TIME SELLERS: DOWN HERE 7”: OUTRO RECORDS

The Time Sellers quickly envelop their songs in a Manchester Sound canvas. They do not hesitate to use traits of shoegaze to illustrate their creativity in sculpting this downer. “Down Here” celebrates a spacey but bouncy vibe that is quite seductive, as a plucky, atmospheric guitar line sweeps around the speakers. A sturdy backbeat and Ian Curtis meets Robert Smith vocals capture mood and attitude. Great jam! “Hat and the Crown” is a more straightforward banger, bouncing and employing a funkier bassline. Spacey elements still add to the aura of dreary aggression, just little rougher, and noisier guitar work adds some snotty punk class to this track. –Hutch

ZAKK SABBATH: LIVE IN DETROIT EP: SOUTHERN LORD

Covering Black Sabbath is a cursed path for most, and few have pulled it off to sincere accolades—though the Faith No More Hydra Head 7” series did. Zakk Wylde, having spent years playing with Ozzy, sure has his dues paid. His scorching renditions are captured here, live in Detroit. Sanctioned by the riff propagators at Southern Lord, this three-track EP unleashes blazing and brutal covers of “War Pigs”—at 13:25!—“Supernaut,” and “Fairies Wear Boots.”

Wylde enlists bassist Rob “Blasko” Nicholson, who has played with Ozzy Osbourne, and drummer Joey Castillo.

This is a one-time pressing, limited edition, on multiple-color 12” LPs, available on June 16. –Hutch

SPLITS JESUS PIECE / MALICE AT THE PALACE: SPLIT: BRIDGE NINE RECORDS

Jesus Piece bring utter savagery. Their performances onstage and on record are blind feral rage. Their fivetrack EP turned heads. Their Summer ‘16 three-track tape shook the earth. Chaotic noise and devastating breakdowns highlight this sludgy hardcore fest. Taylor Young and Brad Boatright turn knobs to elicit the best of metallic hatred. Malice At The Palace bring the same style of ‘90s beatdown metalcore, a little crisper, a little sharper. Jesus Piece are uglier; Malice At The Palace have more solos. Both sides kill. Bridge Nine reppin’ again. –Hutch

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LLNN / WOVOKA: MARKS/TRACES: PELAGIC RECORDS

Grandiose aspirations here. The galactic doom contributed by WOVOKA’s 18-minute track is reminiscent of mid ISIS, mixing violent declarations and cosmic trepidation. The guitars, echoing in dissonance, build the listener’s anxiety while ushering in waves of acceptance. The sonic tsunami is challenging. LLNN appeared last year with a release on Pelagic entitled, Loss. The dudes from Copenhagen return here to consider their side of the vinyl, “Marks.”

One second, they play loosely, then crush dimensions with glacial dominance. This June 16 release is captured on a five-color screen print and available on black and black with brass splatter vinyl. –Hutch

REISSUES GHOUL: HANG TEN 10” AND WALL OF DEATH 7”: TANKCRIMES

Those lovable burlap-sacked executioners from Creepsylvania open the vault for Tankcrimes. Hang Ten is mostly instrumental, though “Kreeg” features vocals from Tony Foresta of Municipal Waste and Iron Reagan. This 2014 EP spewed biker metal with a kind of surf guitar inspiration. The horror-loving, gory bastards give the world a limited pressing, mastered by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound Mastering and sporting cover art by Sean Aaberg of Pork Magazine. “Wall of Death” was a supplement to Ghoul’s Dungeon Bastards LP. Now, the track is backed with “Humans Till Deth.” Tankcrimes explains, “It’s taken from the ongoing soundtrack to ‘The Humans’ comic.” –Hutch

IGGY POP: THE IDIOT, LUST FOR LIFE, AND TV EYE LIVE: UME Know what’s better than an Iggy Pop rerelease? Three Iggy Pop rereleases. The folks at UMe sent an intern deep into the vaults with instructions not to come out until they found something good.

In this case, it was Iggy Pop’s first three solo albums. On June 2, the label released The Idiot, Lust For Life, and TV Eye Live on colored vinyl. They’ll be bundled together in a limited-to-500 custom tote bag featuring cover art of The Idiot on one side and Lust for Life on the reverse. –John B. Moore

STRIFE: IN THIS DEFIANCE: WAR RECORDS

In the mid to late ‘90s, Strife ruled the hardcore world. Strife maintained their fury and straight edge ethos, and intentionally fused a more metal sound into their second LP, In This Defiance.

Transcending a genre, Strife embraced the metal world’s top tier by including Chino Moreno from Deftones, Iggor Cavalera of Sepultura, and Dino Cazares of Fear Factory. Strife toured with Sepultura for their iconic Roots album in 1996, obviously impacting their writing. The speed inherent in their first album still motivated the music and the message. The California straight edge hardcore spirit still thrives in these dudes, and here, we can feel their largest footprint in a cool package. –Hutch

AUDIO/VISUAL PLASMATICS: LIVE! ROD SWENSON’S LOST TAPES 1978–81: MVD VISUAL Despite being a wildly influential band—and highly entertaining—there is not a ton of early footage out there of Wendy O. Williams and her band, the Plasmatics. This rare live footage was recorded during the band’s early years—the late ‘70s—by her longtime partner Rod Swenson, who also recorded all of the band’s videos. This collection includes some of their first shows, when they took the stage at CBGBs. Some of the footage is grainy, but the sound is solid and the historical significance to the world of punk rock can’t be ignored. –John B. Moore

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CHUY HARTMAN / PUNK ROCK BOWLING 2017 / SEE MORE AT WWW.NEWNOISEMAGAZINE.COM

Chicago’s masters of death fuckin’ metal return with their 7th studio album!

A horrifyingly brutal yet catchy sonic massacre

Out everywhere eve June 23rd 2017 Special Edition CD+DVD Digipak Includes A Bonus Track Plus A Live Set From Obscene Extreme 2016 LP Versions Available: Arctic Ice Blue (Band Exclusive) Peeled Flesh Pink (Retail Exclusive) (Re

MU T I L AT E D A N D A S S I M I L AT E D

ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING

Crust/Grind influenced Death Metal.

This is not music crafted for the faint of heart, prepare yourself. .

Out Everywhere June 2nd 2017 7.

Available on CD Jewelcase, Gatefold LP+CD (Silver Wax) and Everywhere Digitally