NO MORE GIGS Winter 2016 by NO MORE GIGS

free! always

winter 2016

+jack pitt and wes brown (from Jackals)

JEFF ROSENSTOCK

JACK PITT WES BROWN

After many months of us being ridiculously busy, we’ve finally finished this issue. It’s been so long, I don’t really know when it was meant to be out… possibly April? Anyway, this issue has some great stuff in it: We’ve got an interview with Jeff Rosenstock from way back when he played the Owl sanctuary, as well as an interview with local musicians Jack Pitt and Wes Brown. On top of that we have a load of reviews, including G.L.O.S.S, Sheer Mag, Shopping and Slow Gherkin. This issue also marks the first time we’ve asked someone who actually knows what they’re doing to design it, so we welcome Rhi Bowen to a more official role within NMG. NMG is edited, printed and distributed by Karl Howarth and Ned Samuel. Rhi Bowen designed the original logo, as well as the cover and layout. All photos belong to their respective artists, as credited. Find us on Facebook for updates, Wordpress for extended interviews and selected features, and on an experimental basis, Issuu (www.issuu. com/nomoregigs). If you have an enquiry or a contribution, message us on Facebook, or email us at nomoregigszine@gmail.com.

JEFF JEFF ROSENST ROSENS

- we always felt open to It didn’t anything to do with the musical aspect of Bomb! in our way there. The got really ever g nothin d, wante we s make whatever record Your Brains Out Live (Blow difference between the first song on Album Minus Band a while, Bomb the After ous. enorm is TV!!!) and the last/secret song on Vacation ive, and when one of collect a than band onal traditi Music Industry! became a more think we could keep the the members (Matt) wanted to move to Australia I didn’t started liking the idea of also I ed. band burning with the fire and intensity it deserv rding songs in my g/reco writin still while ty, stabili having a job and some financial SideOneDummy heard about apartment and releasing them for free on the internet. I had just finished entally the demos for We Cool? through a friend and coincid d to release it, so it wante and it liked They recording that record with a full band. after submitting iately Immed t. though ever I than deal ended up becoming a bigger for it than just names better the art for the “Hey Allison!” 7”, I thought of five way calling it Jeff Rosenstock. Oh well.

We’re recording it in a week or so. I wa s very happy with to write just anot We Cool? so I didn’t her, probably less want good version of th musically and lyrica at. I tried to challen lly - it’s mostly a ve ge myself ry poppy record, bu music to represen t I wanted parts of t the anxiety, mania the and quick ups and trying to just find downs one feels as their place as a ha they are ppy person in the mo bombards you with dern world, a world the idea that comm that erce and products political record at equate to happine times, it’s a record ss . It’s a ab out love, it’s a reco uncertainty and mo rd about depressio st importantly it’s n and a record about expe once because we do riencing all those n’t experience sin things at gular emotions.

TOCK!!!!! STOCK!!!!! Thanks! I hope so, I always hoped Bom b! records sounded different from each other, otherwise why make another record? I feel the same about the solo stuff. There are bands who are great at sticking to one style, but I’ve always been more expe rimental by nature.

started taking shape I knew It wasn’t necessarily deliberate, but once the record ies, my depression, my anxiet my all about ul truthf I wanted the whole piece to be “fuck you” to all of that fears and failures because the last song is all about saying write songs from a dark to me for shit and trying to live life anyway. It’s much easier lly telling a story genera I’m songs, e positiv place than a happy place. When I write to get need and out ng freaki just y usuall I’m lyrics but when I write darker n with me writte were s something out. Most of the lyrics for the past two record t. though ous consci ignore to lying face down on a mattress and trying

“Polar Bear or Africa” specifi cally is a reference to a hug e dermabrasion I got after motorbike accident during a an off-day on an Australian tour which I decided to spe in Bali with a friend. That ent nd ire previous sentence proves how lucky and fortunate I am to have music in my life because it’s enabled me to do amazing things I’ve nev dreamed of. Of course, bec er ause I’m an idiot, that’s not enough for me and I tend to take chances and live a litt le too dangerously at times without regard for my own safety and if anything seriou s happened to me, it would be bad for a lot of people other than myself. That titl e specifically is a reference to the scar that dermabrasion left which looked either like a polar bear or the continent of Africa depending on how you looked at it. “You, In Weird Cities” is sim ply about feeling down and then turning on a Good Luck record and thinking about Gin ger working at her restauran t, Matt working at his bakery and Mike doing woodw orking stuff. I’m lucky to hav e so many friends who make

amazing music that I can list en to and think about them. Oddly enough, I don’t mention anyone from Good Luck in that song.

en if I’m playing music, so ev y happy when I’m all that d re an I’m ed ink cit th ex I t . t demoing I ge ar st I’m not really sure I en wh re d su sa y that sounds I’m not reall writing something conscious thing, so a t . no s me it’ to t od Bu . go ng the so what feels energy seeps into out it and just write ab ink th to t no try what’s going on. I

Being a part of the 3rd genera tion of the Bruce Lee Band is a dream come true. I get to play in a ska band with the man who basically showed me all my favorite ska bands, including his own, wh o inspired me to make music at a young age. Being a part of the Asian Man Record s family is a dream come tru e too. Recording/producing/being a part of those Bru ce Lee Band records was so much fun. I recorded Jesse Michaels’ vocal track in Mik e Park’s garage on my laptop sitting on an ice pack so it wouldn’t crash... that’s the stuff childhood dreams are made of. The icing on the cake was getting to go to Jap an and Korea, playing shows with Mike, Dan Potthast, Gerry & Lars from Skankin’ Pickle and John and Kevin fro m my band. And I also got to write a record with Mike Hug uenor. There’s literally no par t of being in The Bruce Lee Band that isn’t amazing.

to come over with You’d have to ask Mike about Bruce Lee Band. I’d love we’re old ‘n without and sive expen is there ing travel but Antarctigo Vespucci, make it work. I always to way disposable income, so we would have to figure out a happened to get really just band solo the want to do more touring with Antarctigo, busy.

Slow Gherkin, along with MU 330, represent the most und errated third-wave ska, whatever you wanna call it, bands. Their songs are great, their energy is cool, their lyrics are great, everything holds up really well which is hard to say about most bands from that era. I love Slow Gherkin. They played a reunion show in New York and I went and freaked the fuc k out and sang every word.

g it all separate. When I I like all kinds of music and I don’t see the point in keepin that sound the same in a songs 20 put never would I kid a was I made mixtapes when Music, I think they’re Game ES row. I’m pretty heavily influenced by J-Pop and NES/SN music is an game and es textur s, sound a infinite source of beautiful melodies, that don’t sound s /artist bands of lot a like also I alism. incredible example of minim ey, Pavement, r-Kinn Sleate , like us - ELO, Pulp, Patsy Cline, Black Sabbath, Neil Young ce on me as influen an heavy as are those Fiona Apple, Built To Spill, Jimmy Cliff - all of imes. somet able notice less little a just it’s think I Green Day and The Beach Boys,

That’s actually what I wanted to do when I got out of high school, but it seemed that the only way to get into that would be through recording/mixing bands, which as much as I’ve improved I don’t think is my strong suit. Mike Park and The Smith Street Band were the first ones to give me the opportunity to help out only with the songs and not necessarily the sitting at a desk or patching cables part, and luckily from that Smith Street Band record, some peop le realized that I could actually do it. It’s a very fun and very intense process for me because these bands are trusting me with their songs, and all I want to do is help them be as good as they can be.

et for free was going good I started it simply because giving music away on the intern Matt Kurz out with his friend my help to d wante I and for Bomb the Music Industry! worked for me, maybe it’ll one-man-band, The Matt Kurz One. So I just figured, this money, or have him build a no g work for you. I didn’t want to pressure him into makin have both of our records. could we where ” “label website so it made sense to start a have the same mindset as Shortly after, Jeff from Pegasuses-XL told me that they

ng out stuff for Johnson was putti k Ric . rd co re eir d then it just kept so I put out th out his records, an far as music goes, ng tti pu d te t. ar st I bsite, so ntastic records ou free on his own we put some really fa to gh ou en ky luc en growing and I’ve be

I’ve only just heard of her, but I have been listening to Mitski non-stop the last 24 hours, especially the video for “Your American Girl.”

t out a ck from AJJ just pu My friend Mark Gli fucking hilarious. Business which is

zine called How to

Thanks for doing this interview! Thank you!

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Make It In the Mu

This band is possibly one of my favourite bands I’ve heard in recent years, and they’ve only gone and announced that they’re breaking up! Ah, well. On with the review. G.L.O.S.S. are a hardcore band from Olympia, Washington, and

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EVI

I’m running out of time and can’t be bothered to think of a shit-ton of synonyms for ‘heavy’ so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. This is a powerviolence record, cut by some genre masters, with face-melting blasting, noisy dirges and colossal breakdowns. It is very fast and very gnarly. NS

are god damn sick. I love their unapologetically aggressive attitude queer liberation and experiences. “Trans Day of Revenge” is their second EP, and is really clear and well produced. “Give Violence A Chance” is their opening track, and that says a lot about the band from the get go. The track is about police brutality, with reference to the Black Lives Matter movement and opening with the phrase “WHEN PEACE IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR DEATH // IT’S OUR TURN TO GIVE VIOLENCE A CHANCE!“ then tearing into a sick riff and drumbeat. Ned reviewed this as a stand alone track last issue, but I feel that it works brilliantly to set up this EP. Another track worth mentioning is the third track, “Fight”. Not only is it a great example of an awesome hardcore

track permeated by an metal inspired guitar solo (still only about 5 seconds long), it is also militantly anti-fascist, which will guarantee my approval of any track. The EP closes with it’s titular track “Trans Day Of Revenge” gloriously calls for trans people to take up arms against privilege within the LGBTQ+ community, against societal expectations of what a trans person should be and against the violence that they face. Just like this whole EP, this track is awesome, with the muted verse riffs and brief solos, as well as the chorus’s cacophony of drums and cymbals make this (and all of their songs) instant classics. G.L.O.S.S.’s whole line up is tight and at the end you find yourself wishing that it was a full album. The fact that I’m unlikely to ever see them live or hear a full album hurts me on a fundamental level, but if you’ve kept up with why they’ve broken up, then it’s perfectly understandable (the bastards). KH _________________

The first word that springs to mind when trying to describe this split is ‘crushing’. On one side is Moloch, who play ugly, miserable sludge, with a slight hardcore element to it. They offer up two cuts, ‘Disability’, which clocks in at around nine minutes, and ‘Holding the Hand of Someone Dying’, which

is a measly six. Both feature swampy, immensely distorted guitars pounding slow, minimal, Sabbath-esque riffs out, over and over; though the music is melancholy and menacing, the riffs and drumming are incredibly rhythmic and hypnotic. It’s sludge done very, very well. ‘Disability’ explores some more emotional textures and ends in drones, while ‘Holding the Hand of Someone Dying’ is like a slow, devastating take on a stompy hardcore song. On the other side are Lich, a band more prone to short, fast songs and blastbeats. I suppose to a certain type of person (a normal person, for example) all this music sounds the same, but Lich, now sadly departed, stumbled on a curious mix of grindcore, powerviolence, sludge and metalcore. Lighting blasting abounds, interspersed with metallic riffs and crushingly heavy breakdowns. Works for me lads. Their first song on the split, ‘Beggar’s Teeth’, is the longest, at about two and a half minutes. It moves through a lot of different musical territory and tempo changes, as most the songs do, but relies more on slow, dissonant riffs than the others, which are more grind/ violence oriented. Where Lich go fast, they go incredibly fast, which along with their complex compositions makes for some bracing listening. A very good split! __________________

After a long time being super-DIY and little-known, Museum Mouth look set to jump to a bigger audience. A goof on a well-known punk news site which confused the two bands bought them to the attention of Say Anything’s Max Bemis, who has since supported the band by touring with them and signing them to his label. Every Museum Mouth full length does something different with their poppy punk formula; this album emphasises their ‘alternative rock’ influences, or 90s rock influences, or whatever it is. Museum Mouth take to this style very well: the songs are well-structured, and for the larger part exciting, with joyous riffing, memorable hooks, sorrowful picking, and generous helpings of that pretty kind of dissonance you hear a lot in this music. The production is better than on last records, and it works for the songs well; the sound is still reverb-heavy and distorted, but less muddy and lo-fi. Museum Mouth’s last album chronicled the decline of a failed relationship, and while this album is less specifically themed, it’s similarly introspective. My favourite line on the album is in ‘Lacquer’, a bittersweet banger with a loud, bouncing riff. Referencing their last work, Karl says he ‘swore that I would move on from unrequited love songs / but I was wrong’. Throughout the album

there’s strange comical moments (‘you develop a crush on the mailman / you jerk off outside / because you can’), scatterings of beautiful imagery and mundane detail, and very emotionally raw, honest stuff about family (Kuehn’s father passed shortly before the album), relationships going wrong, and generally feeling crazy. There’s a lot of good lines, and admittedly some slightly ridiculous ones too. I found this album very exciting when I first got it and listened to it a lot, but then left it on my shelf for a while. Going back to it to finish this review, I can confirm that in spite of my bad attention span and a couple of throwaway tracks it remains Museum Mouth’s most accomplished record. Recommended for people who like pop-punk and alternative rock and that. NS _________________

As you saw in the interview we conducted with Jeff Rosenstock earlier in the issue, he’s got a new album out, and he still doesn’t disappoint. “WORRY.” is his third solo album, which he’s released only a year after “We Cool?”. There are 17 tracks on the album, so I’m going to use a broad brush for a lot of it and mention a couple, but overall the album doesn’t disappoint. As I was listening to “WORRY.” for the first time, I was initially

a bit underwhelmed. I thought the album was a lot more focused on his more mellow work, which isn’t bad, but it’s not the high energy music we’re used to and kind of merge into one track if you’re not paying attention. Then you get to half way through the album and I feel it really picks up. Because of this, you can also appreciate the first half for the great songs that they are. That being said, once you’ve listened to it a few times, early tracks like “Festival Song” or “To Be A Ghost” are some of the catchiest on the album. “Wave Goodnight To Me”, which was released as a video, is also really good, capturing Jeff’s quintessential mix of jovial melancholy. Also the video’s great. The second half of the album, from around “I Did Something Weird Last Night” (track 8), is really good. I love the lyrical hook in the bridge which is just catchy and fun, summing up the nostalgic romance the song to talking about. “Bang On The Door” is a really fun song which is reminiscent of BtMI’s “(Shut) Up The Punx!!!”, simply in the structure and style. As someone who discovered Jeff’s music through ASOB, I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t mention “Rainbows”. It is an unapologetically ska-punk track, influenced by Bruce Lee Band, especially the recent stuff that Jeff (and his bass payer and drummer) was part of. It also works brilliantly with the super short hardcore track “Planet Luxury” that seamlessly follows it. As I said, there are just too

many great tracks to mention them all, and by now you’re aware that I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m a huge fan of Jeff Rosenstock. You can buy his stuff from SideOne Dummy, or you can download it for a pay what you can donation, or for free, off Quote Unquote. KH __________________

This release is a split by Discos MMM, seemingly comprising two releases by two punk bands from Bogota, Colombia, one of whom I was previously aware of, Dead Hero, and one I was not. Overall it’s good stuff, worth checking out. First up are Secta. They’re a hardcore punk band with a d-beat bent, who also utilise some of the tricks you see post-punk bands using, like slow builds, and chorus and bass on the guitar. The guitar playing goes from slightly stompy d-beat hardcore stuff to more complex picking with chorus and reverb pedals in play. ‘Oposicion’ and ‘Nuevo Orden’ are more reliant on the second technique, and sound a bit like White Lung; angry, cutting songs with interesting guitar licks and textures. ‘Crisis de Identidad’ and ‘Extinction’ are more straightforward hardcore tunes, but good ones; both have cool slow build starts, and I like ‘Crisis’s simple riffs and fast pace. It’s not fantastic, but good, and suggests the band has

potential. I checked out this split because of Dead Hero, whose demo I enjoyed. They play Oi! and seem to take a lot of influence from Blitz, particularly the material from when Blitz began to become a little more experimental while still playing shouty punk. The first three songs on their side of the split sound incredibly joyous and triumphant (though the lyrics may perhaps contain some deep cynicism that’s evaded me). There are chorused guitar leads and sometimes bass, vocalist Paula absolutely gives it at all times, the gang vocals are ultra-rowdy. ‘Honor y Gloria’ starts with an almost stadium rock riff, and the band has a good grasp on writing exciting builds and intros. It’s very uplifting stuff, but the first three songs get a bit repetitive; big intros, bigger choruses and gang vocals galore are all hallmarks of Oi! but Dead Hero overuse them a bit here, and though I don’t know what the lyrics mean the constant joyous tone of the music can get a bit much. However, the last song on the split, ‘Antisocial’, is darker and more aggressive. It sounds a bit more like Secta’s work, with tense guitar lines accompanying the palm muted chords. Dead Hero could use some more aggressive-sounding songs for a bit more variation, but are still a band I enjoy. Overall this split is solid; both bands feel like they’re still developing their sounds a bit, but there’s some good songs here. ____________________

Once again, Sheer Mag have dropped a 4 song EP and thus brought joy to my awful, awful life. To some, Sheer Mag’s music will have already become woven into their punk memories from the past couple of years. Others will find them cheesy, or assert that they’re dad rock. This is an EP that won’t change anyone’s minds about them, but seems to be sending the fans wild. Their stock-in-trade is melodic, punchy hard rock, with soulful vocals and plentiful distortion. They’ve further refined their sound on this release: there is more variation in the style and tone of the songs, the musicianship has got better again (having already been above average to start with), and the production is less overdriven and lo-fi than on their previous EPs. If we still had vinyl charts that people cared about you could see each of these songs being a single. ‘Can’t Stop Fighting’ is musically upbeat, with a shoutalong chorus and wailing guitar licks, but its lyrics speak of violence towards women, and pushing back against it. It’s a song laced with darkness, but it’s also an encouraging one: ‘we’re striking back baby, and you can find me in the vanguard’. ‘Worth the Tears’ laments a breakup with melancholic, weaving notes on the guitar and a catchy and cathartic chorus (‘well at least I tried / and the time we had / was worth the tears that you made

me cry’). Though distorted, it sounds a little like a Byrds song. ‘Night Isn’t Bright’ is faster than the rest, with a riff that you could call a boogie, I think (but that sounds weird). It’s driving and fun, and again lyrically dark yet optimistic. ‘Nobody’s Baby’ finishes the record, mixing a cheerful, immensely distorted riff with sweet sad melodies; when Tina yells ‘you don’t know just what I’m worth’ it’s heart-rending stuff. So yeah, great! Highly recommended if you like Thin Lizzy, the Exploding Hearts, or sunny days near a body of water. ____________________

Shopping are an amazing band. They bring a brilliant energy to post-punk, drawing some influence from funk with their solid bass lines and short, sharp guitar licks. Ned and I saw them live a little while ago and they are so tight, sounding almost exactly like they do recorded, but showing just how much fun they have playing this music. “Consumer Complaints” is their first album, and while it isn’t their newest, it was the first one I heard and the only one I own. The opening track “Any Answers” is a great one to kick off with, with the characteristically bouncy bass lines and repetitive lyrical hooks. Another really good one is “For Your Money”. It has a relatively

mellow, continuous vocal track, mixed with a guitar riff that will get stuck in your head. The final track, “Theme” is definitely the catchiest, repeating a capitalist mantra over and over again, highlighting the monotony of consumer culture. On the vinyl recording, the song ends with probably about 5 minutes of the sound of a cash register opening, which I think is a great way to end a record about the monotony of capitalism, especially for anyone who’s worked in customer service. This band is definitely a personal favourite. Live, they are so tight, sounding exactly like they do on their recordings while still generating loads of energy. Check this record out on their Soundcloud for free, or order one. _________________

SLOUCH are a d-beat band also from Olympia, Washington. I discovered them through downloading G.L.O.S.S.’s new EP, and Bandcamp suggesting them. “Toxic Bitch” is their second EP and deals with issues effecting the queer community and mental health. The EP opens with the staple feedback before exploding into “My Turn”. This track has some heavy palm-muted, thrash-crossover vibes, with some chugging guitar riffs. “N/A/G - Not A Girl”, which is an out and out d-beat diatribe

against misgendering people, is another great example of the kind of bouncy aggression that punctuated SLOUCH’s music. The fifth track, “Learning To Live”, is a really good track about feeling suicidal and how a lot of people blame those that suffer from severe depression for feeling that way. Overall, the sound of this EP reminds me a lot of some of Send More Paramedics more hardcore stuff, but without the zombie motif. Or a more recent, topical band, if you know of one, but I don’t. I must admit, when a hardcore band has “Toxic Bitch” as the title of their EP, it does make me immediately dubious, but SLOUCH are a part of the queer punk scene with lyrics about being transgendered, so it’s not from a macho/sexist perspective. Once you’ve listened to a couple of their tracks, you’ll know if it’s your sort of thing, but I think they’re really good! _________________

The third wave of ska that came to prominence in the 90s isn’t the most fondly-remembered of genres, but there were a lot of genuinely creative and passionate bands at work in that era, such as Slow Gherkin. They emerged as another silly ska band but got serious; mixing ska with classic rock and new wave sounds like a very silly idea indeed, but their second album

Shed Some Skin still holds up to the older, far less ska-crazy me. It’s a well-written, complex record, musically and lyrically. In spite of breaking up about fifteen years ago, Slow Gherkin have recently surprise-released a download-only single. It’s in a pretty similar vein to the aforementioned album; great melodies, dual guitars, horns which actually add to the track rather than just toot away, Farfisa organ. The melodies are great, as are the crunchier guitar riffs (the upstrokes I can take or leave). Both songs deal with aging to some extent, the first in the context of a relationship, the second reflecting on having not been in a band for so long; a nice line is ‘the past, some words we thought we knew’. For some people this will maybe be annoying as fuck I’m sure, but anyone who likes ska, particularly this sort, should check this out. _________________

This is the Taxpayers 6th studio album. They are the pioneer “goofpunk” band, but to everyone else they’re a DIY, folkpunk sort of thing. I know of the Taxpayers from the albums available on Quoteunquote Records, “A Rhythm In The Cages” and “To Risk So Much For One Damn Meal”, which are really good albums and I really recommend downloading them. From

what I can tell, “Big Delusion Factory” is still very distinctly Taxpayers, but I think they’ve lost a little of the punk side of their music. The opening track is a chaotic, grating intro, which is hard to listen to, and at first had me worried, but that turned out to be the exception to the album, which is very keyboard/piano heavy. These songs are much mellower than their previous albums have been, with their mix of blues and jazz inspired folk-punk, but the lyrics are still very insightful, as well as there being the odd guitar riff. The heavy, piano-laden ballad tracks are abruptly broken up by the 7th and 11th track, “Roll Call” and “Brain Drain (Tunnel of Love)”, by being shining examples of chaotic post-hardcore. I feel like it would take a lot of listens to discern a favourite track, as it must be said that if you’re not paying full attention (say, because you’re writing a review), a lot of the tracks sound very similar. I’ve got to say thatI preferred the other two albums I mentioned: the blues element to their music made them stand out from the rest of the folk punk pack, without the losing any punk edge. And while I did enjoy slower tracks on the previous albums, I thought they worked better as calm, emotive tracks in an album of punk, rather than the complete opposite which Big Delusion Factory presents. But, hey. Mixing it up is what keeps new albums fresh, it just doesn’t do much for me. KH

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Triage are a fast, metallic hardcore band from Toronto; this is their first 7”, after a demo in 2014, and it’s recorded by Jonah Falco from Fucked Up. They play fast and frenetic hardcore that switches up between eerie guitar passages, galloping d-beats, Motorhead pounding, ugly palm muted riffs, and histrionic solos. And my god, it’s fantastic! Desperate vocals (singer Lia has a really savage but really hard to describe vocal style), interesting song structures, unrelenting energy, and so, so many sick riffs. ‘Secret War’, which changes between palm muted chords and rolling drums to remarkably fast d-beat choruses, opens proceedings, and the record continues raging from there, only stopping for the occasional bit of weird, menacing guitar work, like at the start of ‘White Eyes’. The thrashy riff in the title track’s breakdown is just ridiculous. For fans of rockin’ riffs and devastating intensity. _________________

Recently I’ve heard a lot of bands who I think are good, but who I am a little too matey with or lazy to review their music. Nonetheless I think it’s worth mentioning them. During

a stay in Leeds I was delighted to be introduced to the groups Lugubrious Children, Dog Eggs, Coproach, Tools of the Trade, Hex, and Dad Rock. The first four are grindviolence of one form or another, Hex are sarky, stompy hardcore and Dad Rock are strange, instrumental math rock’n’roll. My friend Joe is part of Scrap Brain, who released a demo of tight-strung avant-garde hardcore, and Jack and Wes are in Midnight Parasite of course, delivering crusty hardcore goodness. I feel I should also mention my friend Tommy is becoming a wrestler, but that’s not music.

JACK PITT

I’ve known Jack and Wes since the first DIY punk show I saw in Norwich. The two were and are singing in Jackals, and as of late Wes is vocalist and Jack bassist in Norwich metal-punkers Midnight Parasite. Jack was vocalist of Sonic Order, organises a fair few Norwich punk shows, and has done a lot of writing about and photographing punk, and Wes has created art for many bands and promoters. I met with them in The Owl Sanctuary and we had a long chat about a number of topics. We had to cut it down pretty heavily for the print edition, but you can see a longer version of the interview on our website.

Jack: We actually all hate each other. Wes: Yeah I fucking hate them all. (chuckling) We’ve had a few line-up changes. People’s priorities have changed a bit, some don’t want to be in bands anymore… J: I think the biggest thing is people moving to London, it makes it hard to practice. W: Yeah, Sam has to travel from London... people obviously still enjoy it, but maybe touring’s something people don’t wanna do as much. We’re writing stuff for a new LP, and it’s a banger. J: We haven’t recorded anything for about two years now. I think by the time we’ve recorded it will have been three years. It’s a long time. But even before the last 7”, we were practicing less than we used to anyway… it’s not been a bad thing because we’ve been able to spend more time on the songs, but it is frustrating when you want to get on with it. We’ll do the LP next year and play some gigs, and that’ll probably be it. Call it a day. W: At the end of the day, it’s been since 2010, hasn’t it, so it’s a long time in anyone’s life. J: It’s one of those things where it’s the level of commitment and effort to keep it going, it’s difficult to maintain when you’re not doing anything and can’t practice very often. Sam’s doing other bands, we’ve got other bands and those function more easily, so with Jackals we wanna go out in a good way, play some last gigs, have fun and leave it on a good note rather than letting it fizzle out entirely.

J: Neither of us were in that at the start. Pete, who drums, and Kyle, who plays guitar met on the internet somehow, because they both wanted to start a band. They practiced with each other maybe four or five times. I didn’t know Kyle at the time, but Pete asked me if I knew anyone in Norwich who wanted to play bass for

WES BROWN it, so I just said I’ll do it. We started practicing last year around Christmas, wrote five or six songs. We didn’t need anyone to do vocals at that point because we were just writing. When we started looking I mentioned to Wes that we needed someone to do vocals if he’d be up for it, and that’s pretty much it. It didn’t happen by default, but he was the only person locally who we thought ‘oh yeah, that’d make sense’ about. W: ‘Oh he likes the stuff’, you know what I mean? It’s sort of a niche band.

J: We’ve got loads of songs that we’re writing, the good thing about it is we’ve been able to practice almost every week since we started, so it’s quite productive. We’ve got a lot of things we’re working on, and we’re gonna record… next year? We’ll see where we are in a few months and let that decide what we do. Probably a seven inch or something, or record five, six, seven songs and figure out what we want to do with them. W: It’s good as well because Pete seems to have been like… working on it for the last 25 years? He comes in with riffs he’d written on his acoustic guitar or something. Everyone’s coming to the table with something. You’ve [Jack] written some songs, Kyle has, Pete has… I haven’t, but…

J: Yeah, we’re just waiting for it to come out. Nothing really interesting in terms of the reason why it’s been held up. It’s coming out on two labels, one’s from Zagreb, called Doomtown, these guys Carlo and Mihael, both people I’ve known for a while. And there’s another guy, Skunk, from Norway, who runs a label called Byllepest. It’ll be out next year.

J: Well, Jack, the guitar player, lives in Canada now. But the thing is, we weren’t really a band for long enough to make a big deal out of splitting up or anything. We’re gonna see – if he stays out there, then that’ll be it. But he comes back to England on and off, so there’s always the option we could play gigs when he’s back, do a tour here and there.

J: I think it was. It wasn’t an Omegas tribute band, it was one of those things where we were just looking at song names because we couldn’t think of anything cool. We had a couple of ideas that weren’t very good… at all. I will say that pret-

ty much all the good band names have been taken now, there’s nothing left. You just have to stick with something that doesn’t sound awful. Just put a couple of words together and hope it’s not embarrassing. W: When I have to explain that my band’s called Jackals or Midnight Parasite, I just sort of say ‘it was funny at the time’. Six years later you’re fucked.

J: Ultimately in terms of these developments it’s best to see them as indicative of a worrying shift. The political landscape has changed, but it’s a development of the way the world’s been going, and the way the world’s been for a long time. People are exploiting things which were already there. With Brexit and so on, it’s gonna be more expensive. But it’s still pretty open in terms of what could actually happen. There’s a lot of ways it could go, but the terms on which it’s going to happen and what the long term effects are going to be is uncertain. Maybe some have a better idea than me, but I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. Ultimately as much as I have massive reservations about the EU, for bands, the idea that you can tour mainland Europe without any sort of hassle, that might be in danger, although I’d hesitate to call it the end of open borders, since they were only open under certain circumstances for certain people. W: In terms of the far right, I’ve seen a lot of people who think that what they do in the punk scene exists only in the punk scene, and not really seeing it in the grand scheme of things. Aping the right. I’ve had to turn down artwork requests for some bands because I don’t think they’ve understood the implications of what they’ve asked me to do. It opens doors for certain people to come in. I’m seeing people at shows who I’ve seen on social media with swastikas in their houses. With Brexit and Trump and all this other stuff; now the fascists are feeling quite bold. The PC thought police thing gets brought up a lot, and all the social justice warrior fucking crap, but basically I don’t want to be around people who are alright with nationalism and racism. That’s what it boils down to. J: With the far right, you give them space to occupy, and they’ll occupy more. I think what we do culturally matters and can have an impact, and the current political situation makes the need for uncompromisingly anti-fascist music and culture all the more vital. There are people in the US and the UK and around the world in bands that have a large degree of social capital and influence on other people. For people to not use that in a positive way, I find that very frustrating. The difference between bands I’m ambivalent about and bands that I’m excited by is whether they use that scene credibility, or whatever they’ve got, for good; to encourage people to think about things and take action.

J: It’s a really old discussion I think, since punk’s existed people have been asking how, as a subculture or a counter-culture, it can have an effect on the

wider world. As I said, I genuinely believe it can, especially when people are able use the power that punk gives them to do positive things and put things on the agenda. For example at Static Shock Weekend, Strutter were absolutely raging but between songs made it explicit that one of their songs is about white privilege. Their singer’s in a cool band that people like, in fact three or four bands that people really do listen to, and is using that platform to challenge people. Punk can sometimes, if it’s done well, be an escape for marginalised people, so if you can use your own ability within the scene to make it a more inclusive place and elevate marginalised voices that’s also an important thing. I think that’s the biggest thing for punk right now as far as its vitality goes is in the expansion of the range of voices that you can hear. Not to say that there’s not a long way to go, as for some people women in punk is still seen as an anomaly, but in a lot of scenes there are so many women that are just destroying the idea that punk is for and by men. Before the Static Shock aftershow at the Unicorn there was a fundraiser for a Decolonise Fest, and these things are happening everywhere, not just in London. If marginalised people are able to find power and a voice for themselves through punk, that’s a good thing in itself, beyond debates about the effect punk has in an activist sense. There’s bands like Haram, for example.

J: Punk’s always been an international thing. I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so vital, it brings together people from very different backgrounds.

J: It’s always been the case that punk’s had that international thing, and while the world is becoming a more fragmented place in some ways, in terms of ease of travel it has got smaller maybe, so it’s still viable for people to do this.

W: Even though it is all there at the click of a button, you still have to do it… even if the means are there, it’s still an effort, and it’s still worth doing. If you really want to find out some bands, maybe message somebody, get a tape off them… so some of those elements are still there. But there’s no point romanticising the 80s and saying oh, now it’s not like that, so it’s not genuine. J: I can understand where that comes from but at the same time I think with anyone who’s actively involved in punk now, you really do get those moments that are actively utopian. It’s less necessary for certain people, and people’s experiences of these kind of things vary, but where it’s done right I think punk can be a very unifying experience, where you can break barriers. You can look at the bigger picture and ask how does punk effect the real world, but if it gives people

©James Rollo

©Dave Gooch

an experience of escape, that’s good in itself and if it gives people experience in organising, that’s something they can then use in the wider world to make tangible differences. Like building DIY spaces, it shows you a new way of working with people different to the one you’re taught about. You can show someone a DIY space where everyone works together and contributes to make it happen, purely because they realise the value of it, and use it to show them that collective organisation can work, that people can make something happen. There’s elements of conflict or whatever too, of course, but there’s a lot of positive examples.

J: Oh shit.

W: ‘Smash to fuck the fucking system’. J: That’s not actually the lyrics though… W: It is! He’s not doing it but it is the lyrics!

J: On the recording he said ‘it’s a messed up fucked up fucking system’ which is bad, and then they realised that ‘smash to fuck the fucking system’ is much better. I guess the lesson to be learned from that is to review your previous work, and that you can build on your previous mistakes. W: Demo a lot. J: Punk’s a learning experience… W: Punk’s about… refining what you’ve done under a microscope until it’s devoid of any originality. J: And you hate your own work. Nah. It’s about learning, getting better. W: I hope that was alright mate! We will have an extended version of this interview on nomoregigszine.wordpress.com.