Yer Scene Vol. 16 by yerscene

YERSCENE

v o l u me 16

a n in t e r v ie w w it h

k in g c o s t a Re v ie w s o f Nu v o l a s c u r a a n d Or b o b o r O Ar iz o n a ?s Be s t Lo c a l Al b u ms o f 2 0 18

Yer Scene Zi ne VOLUME 16 editor in chief Kenneth Fury co-editor Brandon Nurick head of media & design Amelia Bailey co-designer Larissa Lukens

@kfurybud @bobafettywappp @_ameliabailey_ @larissa_lukens

cover design by Daniele Carrera

@dokfitz

cover photo by Gemma Cannavo

@gemm.c

contributing writers Alex Hirsch Owen Schmidt Dylan Hewitson-Bevis Ryan Najjar

@affaiblit @owentschmidt @dylanjhb @thelittlekingcarpenter

Brandon Kellum

@brandonkellum

Daniele Carrera

@dokfitz

contributing artists & photographers Clarice Tudor Gemma Cannavo Livvy Mitchell Matias Ramirez-Bugueno

@claricetheillustrator @gemm.c @livvyillustration @hyperviewph

Tabl eof Cont ent s 1 3

- Let t er Fr om t he Edi t or

- Nuvol ascur a Hi r sch

- s/ t - A Revi ew by Al ex

- An I nt er vi ew wi t h Ki ng Cost a by Ryan Naj j ar

15 17

- Do I t Your sel f by Dani el e Car r er a

- Or obor O - DYAD - A Revi ew by Owen Schmi dt

- Ar i zona' s Best Local Al bums of 2018 by Br andon Kel l um

- Laneway - Uni t y As A Cor e Val ue - A Revi ew by Dyl an Hewi t son- Bevi s

photo by Matias Ramirez-Bugueno

l et t er f r om t he edi t or May this reach you well! I'm thrilled about this issue and everything the zine is doing. I'd like to thank all the staff and team of the zine and thank all those who have supported us. Thank you to Natalie, Brandon and Amelia for always doing their best for me when I need them in my most desperate hours. Beyond that, I am in considerable debt to my best friend Paige whom makes sure I laugh about it all (and a shoutout for Bubby!) Everyone involved in the zine is beyond special to me and the friendships i've made have been life changing. There's far too many people to thank, so allow me extend my gratitude to everyone.

The zine is a constant effort us. This is our lifeblood and i put everything I have into it. The team bleeds for this and I hope you can appreciate it. It's taken everything I have to build this and I am damn proud of it. Everyday people around the world come together to connect in every way and we create art together. What's better than that? Love around the world. Art following it.

I hope you enjoy the zine, consider getting involved and get to that damn gig.

(Thanks Zhukov, I couldn't do this without my right hook. Norah, I love you dearly.)

Let's do this. Your friend, Kenneth Fury @kfurybud

nuvolascura- S/T A Re v ie w b y Al e x Hir s c h Although they?ve recorded three releases under the name of Vril, this is their first release under their new moniker Nuvolascura. If you are unfamiliar with the band, namesake aside, they are a band comprised of members from SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Letters To Catalonia, Curtains, Heritage Unit, and Ghost Spirit. The album runs for 19 minutes, but there?s so much sonic chaos and raw energy from the lyrics and instrumentation channeling through your veins that you?ll be left breathless and wanting to replay the album again in its entirety. But beyond that, Nuvolascura (dark cloud in Italian) has a fitting name given how, thematically, the album delves into the concept of loss and lack of identity.

serene interludes followed by chaotic feedback, blast beats and short but satisfying breakdowns will leave the attentive listener feeling a plethora of emotions ranging from calm to frustrated. Design for an Alter closes the album and brings forth the energy to its ultimate potential. The album ends with such abruption after an instrumental break with the band yelling that it gives off the impression of shutting down mentally and emotionally after a breakdown. The album combines noisy, chaotic screamo with serene interludes which manifests their technical abilities and making it an entertaining album to listen to on repeat. The band combines the aforementioned technicalities and distressing lyrics and portrays to us just how volatile the human psyche can be. These connections make this album to be an unforgettable album and a solid release to kick off 2019, and place itself on the top of the Album of the Year list. This intricate work of art is available to stream on all streaming services and physical copies are available from Zegema Beach Records.

Death as a Crown opens up the album and introduces the listener to a menacing yet melodic world of Nuvolascura. Forget everything you?ve heard from and about Vril, as this opens a new chapter in their career. Tracks like Zen Depression, Cerulean Wound, and It Comes in Plagues of Consciousness sonically manifest a certain volatility in terms of human emotions and is homologous to the writing for each song. The 3

Ki ng Cost a: The Gr eat es t Wr est l i ng Rapper That I sn?t Named J ohn Cena b y Ry a n Na j j a r I could write paragraphs summarizing this beautiful man & everything we talked about, but any attempt at a synopsis would be an insult. This stallion needs to be experienced in full. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We w er e ju st bu m pin g you r t r ack s Om ega & Door s. In a sect ion of t h e lat t er , you of f er a sh in in g t r ibu t e t o door s of m an y qu an t it ies. Wh at w ou ld you say is t h e opt im al am ou n t of door s on a veh icle? Well the car that I drive has two, my mother ?s has two, and my brother has a pickup that?s got four. You think there?d be a lot more room in it but there?s not. So I?d have to go with two.

Ok t h at ?s all I w an t ed t o ask , t h an k you so m u ch f or join in g u s on t h is call.

Yeah no problem, I appreciated it. We at Yer Scen e ar e gr at ef u l t h at you ?r e pr om ot in g on e of t h e m ost im por t an t in st it u t ion s in t h is w or ld: back yar d w r est lin g. Tell u s m or e abou t w h at got you st ar t ed on t h at pat h .

Well I?ve watched wrestling for the past 10 or 11 years & I?ve been obsessed with it. I?m 18 now, 19 in May. My friends & I wrestled in school, but the teachers 6

never really knew about it & we?d get in a bit of trouble whenever we got caught. So about three years ago I decided that we?d get a trampoline & bring it to the house. We?d just invite people down, have fun & wrestle each other. We got people to bring tables & stuff and we went through them all. About six people were watching us that time, and when we did it next month there were ten. Videos of me doing flips onto tables went viral in my area, which isn?t too big but it?s hard to do. I?d already been doing music then; I?d been writing since I was 11, and I only got good when I was 16. So after that, people saw me doing that & everybody started to know who I was. People started to call me King Costa, and I eventually took it as my wrestling name. During that time I made more and more music. I got asked to do a charity performance at another school, and hundreds of people were there. They raised five grand to send to Kenyan schools and I was really happy about that. That was before I had any music that had really done well. I had one song that was around 1000 plays and I was overjoyed. After that I went and made a song called Liar. It blew up really big around here, everyone and their mothers knew about it. When it got to around 20,000 plays I decided to do another LSCW match that June. [Author ?s note: LSCW is the league?s name (Longstone Championship Wrestling). Longstone is his hometown.] I would?ve been happy if 20 people showed up, and I wasn?t expecting much more. We had hype around it, but there was hype around it before and not too many came through. But for that event, after the song came out, about 150 people came to my house to see us wrestle on a trampoline. That was the best day of my life. Everyone was begging me to perform. I liked to keep the wrestling & music separate but everyone wanted me to do the song, so I performed it in the garden with everyone watching me & it was crazy. My brother, who?s produced all of my beats, was living in London at the time. So in July I flew over to London & lived there for five weeks. We did a lot of music there, he got his degree & I went home. I kept making music [in Ireland] & I should?ve made more than I did, but I sort of coasted off cause I went to a new school that September & it was really overwhelming. It was all these new people that already knew me for different reasons. I didn?t want them to know me for my wrestling or music; I wanted them to know me for me. I just went on, did the school year, barely released any music. I did my first show in January of 2018 in the cellar of a club. I released Doors in honor of that, and I did a video for it where Dr. Phil as a green M&M was chasing me around. Around 400 people came to the show & it was amazing, but shit started to go downhill from there. I started making less & less music, but people still stayed interested. After that, we started to plan for LSCW again in July. Me, a couple of my friends, 7

and my father thought about it & figured, ?Fuck it, we might as well get a wrestling ring.? So we built a full-scale 16-foot ring in my backyard, and we live on the main roads so everyone passing by knew our house as the one with the wrestling ring in the garden. We partnered up with a local charity that runs a hospice, 250 people came to the house & we raised ÂŁ1000 [$1284.70 at time of writing], but that was the last wrestling thing I did so far. Wh at w ou ld you say, f r om t h is past on e or t h e ot h er on es, w as a h igh ligh t m om en t ? Do an y par t icu lar on es st ick ou t in you r m in d?

So we?ve done four shows, and during the second one I hopped off the top rope and fell through a table. No one had ever seen that around here. You see that every month on WWE, but it stood out over here, and now everyone?s seen that video. Then, during the third one, I was fighting this fella who?s a complete beast, he?s like a monster. Put this this way: I?m big too? I?m 6?3? & 230 pounds. I jumped off the top rope and he caught me. He walked around with me like I was nothing. People were going crazy, and I guess that would be the main [highlight]; people around here who aren?t even into wrestling really love what we?re doing.

Do you h ave a f in ish in g m ove?

The last one was just a running knee to the head.

So as I m en t ion ed bef or e w e w er e list en in g t o you r st u f f ear lier t oday, an d I?m im pr essed w it h t h e am ou n t of son ic diver sit y bet w een each cu t . Wh er e do you f in d t h e in spir at ion t o appr oach t h ese st yles?

As far as who I?m inspired by, Omega, for example, is just name-drops of all these wrestlers. That was what that was mainly done for, to shout out my inspirations. Then, with Doors, my brother made me this beat that he wanted me to go high-energy on. We wanted to have a song for every style of rap, and when we heard that beat we knew that it would be grimy & dark? that sort of stuff is really big in the UK. The only UK rapper I like is Skepta, and people really like grimy beats like [the ones he uses]. 10

Writing-wise, it?s Kanye West & Jay Z. Jay Z?s probably my biggest inspiration of all, but I look up to Kanye. Jay Z was the first person I?d ever seen in concert; I was 13, and I just wanted to be him ever since. They were my inspiration to write all the time. I?ve been doing it since I was 11 or 12, so now I can do it whenever I want. It?s not hard, and I really enjoy it. Did you k n ow Joh n Cen a h ad a bit of a r ap car eer h im self ?

I would say that John Cena is my Dalai [Lama]. When people see me wrestle, they say that I?m just trying to be the next John Cena.

Ever yon e sh ou ld aspir e t o be h im in t h eir ow n w ay. Wh at w ou ld you say is you r f avor it e t r ack of h is?

There was one called Just Another Day, and another called Bad Bad Man; they had a music video [for the latter] where they had all these different wrestlers dressed as the A Team. It was real badass & cool to see.

I t h in k h e n eeds t o com e back . It ?s been lon g en ou gh , h e?s m ade u s w ait , an d h e?s got u s at t h e en d of ou r r ope. It ?s t im e f or h im t o bless u s again .

Yeah he needs to stop holding back.

If I don?t h ear Basic Th u gon om ics Pt . 2 by Au gu st I don?t k n ow w h at I?m goin g t o do w it h m yself . An yw ay, w h ich ar t ist ?s w ou ld you lik e t o see get in t h e r in g? Oooh. I would love Lil Pump in the WWE, but he?s a bit too small. Lil Uzi Vert could be a high flyer like Rey Mysterio, & that would be cool. Travis Scott would probably get too excited, jump around & pass out. Quavo would probably just go to the side of the ring & not do anything. That would probably leave A$AP Rocky, cause he?d have the whole Mob with him & he?d be fine.

Tr u e, I?m t r yin g t o t h in k of an ot h er collect ive t h ey cou ld go again st . A$AP vs. Migos 11

photo by Gemma Cannavo

by Clarice Tudor

3 on 10, per f ect ly balan ced. Speak in g of t h e M ob, I n ot iced you r f ir st In st agr am post is an im age of A$AP Yam s.

When I posted that, nobody around here knew who that was. We?re always two years behind of the current trends.

So did you also h ave t o cat ch u p t o h ave you r cu r r en t t ast e, or w er e you ah ead of t h e cu r ve? I was always ahead of the curve, yeah. I was one of the first people near me to hear about A$AP Rocky & them when they started circulating in 2013-14. When I was 14 or 15 I joined Young Thugga La Group [on Facebook]. I was one of the first members of it, that?s how I met you [author ?s note: that?s me], and I found so much music through it. Those people were some of the first to bump artists like Lil Yachty & Lil Uzi Vert, and that?s how I found out about all that stuff. Everyone here knows who those people are now, but when they were coming up two years ago no one had even heard of them. They thought they were a bunch of weirdos. Wh at ar e t h e n ext plan s f or Kin g Cost a? Do you h ave an y n ew son gs plan n ed? I?ve always been writing stuff. I?ve been listening to a lot of The Strokes; my brother plays guitar, and we want to make those sorts of songs too. I want to do something with guitar or light synths and sing over it to see if people enjoy it, just to do something different. It?s hard to do, but I?ll get it done eventually. I can do rap songs. I can write those whenever. My brother makes the beats & he can do them whenever. But I want to do something more meaningful. I love songs that are like eight minutes long and take you to the moon & back. That?s what I really want to do: make a complete, well-rounded story that makes you feel something. We can?t w ait t o h ear t h at , an d w e?ll be h er e t o r eview it . Hopefully I can make it.

by Daniele Carerra

D Y A D - OroborO a r e v ie w b y o w e n s c h mid t D Y A D, the new EP from Massachusetts rock outfit OroborO, is a stunning release that blends math rock and metal with post-hardcore, creating a record as different as it is catchy. DYAD is an incredibly unique album, with brilliant, technical performances from every single member of the group, culminating in a release that is completely unlike anything else I?ve ever heard. The record begins with ?Floorboards?, which begins with impassioned, dynamic vocals from lead singer Emily Carter over swirling, atmospheric guitars. As the guitars swell and begin to feedback, Carter ?s clean vocals turn to a growl, and the song breaks into an absolutely brutal riff. Carter switches between her clean vocals and yells with seemingly little effort, getting the

most out of her extensive range and technical skill. Every time signature change, every riff, are all musical, all intentional, and well written. Each song has a unique flow and vision, and despite having two songs over 8 minutes long, no song ever gets dry, or repetitive. Lull is probably my favorite track, featuring driving riffs, an absurd guitar lead towards the middle of the song, and also some of my favorite lyrics. ?hang me out to dry, bleach me in the sun fleshy little husk is dreaming let her have this one? The record closes with the song ?Black Ice?, which was the lead single for this EP, and released back in 2018. It begins with a crushing, almost alt-metal 17

bass riff; one that throbs as angular guitars crash in around it, giving way for Carter to deliver some of the catchiest and dynamic singing on the whole record. This song has some of my favorite drumming on the release as well, as drummer Jordan Frick artfully exhibits his range, with constant pattern and dynamic change ups, displaying detailed, gorgeous playing on the quieter sections of the song. D Y A D is unlike anything I?ve heard

before. It is both crushing and beautiful, delicate and dissonant, and is unbearably raw and emotional at its root. This is the perfect record to listen to as winter cements itself in in the northern hemisphere, as the cold begins to crush me and my small, bitter city in Maine. It?s a wonderfully bleak record; the perfect winter record for those that get sad when the sun goes down. I legitimately dream of making music this good. Give it a listen.

A r i z o n a 's B est L o c al A l b u m s o f 2 0 18 b y Br a n d o n Ke l l u m Brandon Kellum is the vocalist of the hardcore punk/metallic hardcore band American Standards from Phoenix, Arizona. He picks his favorite albums of 2018 released by Arizona bands below. The list is an eclectic mix of AZ indie, punk, metal and everything in between.

American Standards?recent release ?WEEP? is available on iTunes, Bandcamp, and Spotify. The band will be premiering a new single titled ?Phantom Limb? in January 2019 with a US tour to follow.

FULL LENGTH LPs

EPs

o t her

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Gatecreeper - Split

Weird Radicals - Bangers Ball

Sad Dance Party - Spontaneous Human Combustion

Decayer - The Agony Cycle

Dropout Kings - AudioDope

Sundressed - Sundressed & Nominee

Mission G - The Shadow Of Greed

Genesis Company - Falling Out Of Love

Divided Minds - Mood Swings

Playboy Manbaby Lobotomobile Lago - Sea Of Duress Woundvac - Terrorizing The Swarm

Lifelink - Alone

Fairy Bones - 0% Fun

Baseline - For The Sake Of Clarity

Sex Prisoner - State Property

Archetypes Collide - Self Titled

Mouse Powell - First Love

Orenda - Ash

Harrison Fjord - Polychrome

Those Kind Of People - Bout Damn Time

Breakup Shoes - Unrequited Love (& other cliches)

Good Samaritan - I Never Thought I?d Write Songs About You

After Church - Bad Decisions

by Daniele Carrera

I N T HI S I SSUE

CREDI T S Design Program - LucidPress.com Cover - Photo by Gemma Cannavo, designed by Daniele Carerra and Amelia Bailey Fr on t Cr edit s - Design by Clarice Tudor Table of Con t en t s - Photo by Matias Ramirez Bugueno Let t er Fr om t h e Edit or - Artwork by Livvy Mitchell Nu volascu r a Review - Album artwork from https://nuvolascura.bandcamp.com/album/nuvolascura Kin g Cost a In t er view - Photos provided by Ryan Najjar Page 12 - Photo by Gemma Cannavo Page 13 - Design by Clarice Tudor DIY - Photo by Gemma Cannavo, designed by Larissa Lukens Page 16 - Artwork by Merve Skygger Or obor O Review - Album artwork and photos from https://0robor0.com/ Ar izon a's Best Local Albu m s of 2018 - Album artwork from respective bandcamp sites, google images Lan ew ay Review - Photo by Gemma Cannavo, designed by Larissa Lukens Page 21 - Artwork by Daniele Carrera

FONTS - Open Sans, Sn i g l et , Not Cour i er Sans, Ki ngt hi ngs Tr ypewr i t er , Bebas, matchbook,Andal e Mono, GFS Didot, H V D B o d ed o

@y er scene www.y er scenezine.com