Hi! No sarcastic introduction this time or any cover-star baiting. Just some honest reviews and an mp3 of the best track off the compilation. Nice.

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Soulfly – Unleash

The one thing about a Max Cavalera band is that you pretty much know exactly what it sounds like even before you listen to the opening bars. Mixing the right elements of Soulfly’s typically abrasive thrash metal with some interesting world-music influenced breaks and a squealing guitar - business as usual for the Brazilian mob.

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Alesana – This is Usually The Part Where People Scream

Well it’s happened; I’m officially bored to tears by screaming in music. Thanks, Alesana; you’re boisterous, but woefully hackneyed take on the genre is doing nothing for me. In fact, I’ve had to turn this down, for fear that anyone who witnesses me listening to this tripe will think that I’m some pre-pubescent bed-wetter who likes music with all the depth and charm of a turd sandwich.

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We Are The Ocean – Don’t Be Careless

Take note: this is how you do it. London’s We Are The Ocean know how to sucker in the kids, playing the kind of scream/sung melodic hardcore that welsh-boys Funeral For A Friend used to peddle. The vocals give a strong nod towards Dallas Green of Alexisonfire with equal gusto and vitality. Promising.

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Harvey Milk – Barn Burner

I’m not sure whether all Harvey Milk songs sound like this, but I pray to god they do. At just over 2 minutes in length ‘Barn Burner’ is a rampant rock ‘n’ roll facepunch of dirty, fuzzed out riffs and machine gun drumming. This chews up the airwaves like fat man let loose in a chocolate factory. Absolutely brilliant, one to crash your car to.

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Capricorns – Seventh Child Of A Seventh Child

Instrumental band Capricorns say a lot with their music. Some would consider this difficult for a band without a singer, but when you’re making this kind of pulverising racket, who needs some weedy little fart shouting into a microphone? Not these guys. With the kind of drummer you’d kill one of your own friends to have, this doom-laden approach to metal is hard to beat.

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Mouth Of The Architect – Rocking Chairs and Shotguns

Mouth of the Architect are one of those bands that relies on huge passages of winding sound, interspersed with the kind of vocal roars you would normally associate with various wounded animals or enormous men with beards. Come for the dread, stay to be ground down into a fine powder by this Ohio noise-brigade.

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Apse – From The North

Not really sure what to make of this. It kind of washes over you like a really cleansing shower, but doesn’t really go anywhere. Sure, there are some nice moments, if sweeping passages of the same note tickle your fancy. Ultimately though, it’s pretty dull. I’m sure live, it’s equally as un-enthralling, but I could be completely wrong of course.

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Rinoa – Atlantis

This is a bit like listening to Poison the Well covering Deftones songs, with a dash of Hopesfall in the mix. Impassioned screams, complimented by strong instrumental passages and the kind of rough and ready sound that you’d associate with a plethora of underground European hardcore stalwarts. Seriously good work guys, one’s to keep an eye on.

Racebannon – Awaken

This one time, I heard two cats fighting to the death outside my window. Suffice to say, it sounded better than the fuck-awful racket Racebannon class as music.

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Disarm – The River City Ransom Death Pact

I’m a massive sucker for really fast-paced punk rock, so it comes as no surprise that Disarm’s brand of riffs o’ plenty appeals in bucket loads. It’s all there, the “woaaahhh yeahs” the snarling vocals, crashing drums and driving guitar lines. Formulaic as an excel spreadsheet, but oddly pleasing.

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Calabrese – Voices Of The Dead

A horror-rock band without a stand up bass? Shirley not! Calabrese are 3 brothers who all look like they stepped off the set of Greased meets The Krays. Whilst some kinds of horror punk can be pretty hit and miss, this is surprisingly pleasant with a huge chorus and buckets of potential.

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Withered – Dichotomy Of Exile

Someone’s been listening to ‘Blood Mountain’ too much! Oh yeah, that’s me. Also, it seems American metallers, Withered have been spinning one or two Mastadon albums as the riffs on ‘Dichotomy Of Exile’ sound even more beefier and heavier. It then all goes a bit black metal then, which doesn’t interest me in the slightest and the “yappy the back flipping dog” vocals are complete pony until the throaty roars kick in. Bit of an odd one.

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Fellsilent – Immerse

For the fanatical metal fan in us all, this will probably appeal in truckloads. In this case, it does very little except irritate and sound woefully run of the mill. Okay, so it has the detuned guitar shriek and the scream/sung vocals aren’t too bad, but it’s all a bit ‘what’s the point?’ Fellsilent? If only.

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The Psyke Project – Poems Written By Kings

Apparently their drummer wants to nob Madonna. Yikes. Maybe he can win her over with his drumming, which is nothing short of terrific on this track, all double-bass pedals and inhuman stick work - lovely. The rest of it is pretty good as well, coming across a bit like doomed-hardcore heroes Cursed if they decided to extend their sound with even more foreboding.

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Vessels – Look At That Cloud!

Instrumental five-piece Vessels hail from Leeds, so no wonder they sound a bit down in the mouth! Just kidding. I really don’t know what to say about this, other than it draws to mind the kind of extensive ‘build ‘em up, knock ‘em down’ approach to sans-vocal rock that This Will Destroy You have, with the closing eruption of sound at the 6.30 mark spewing forth a wonderful crushing conclusion.

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Sounds

Click on the player to listen to ‘Barn Burner’ by super-fast noise bastards, Harvey Milk.

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Links

See above for band myspace links. Harvey Milk’s album ‘Life…The Best Game In Town’ can be bought from Relapse Records here.

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By Ross Macdonald

Cover songs are always a mixed bag. There’s nothing like hearing your favourite band belting out their rendition of a famous song and thinking “wow, they made that their own, good job!” Only to have some die-hard fan of said song come round your house and beat you with a big sign that says “you’re wrong and a total pillock” until you recant the previous statement.

Anyway, here are some covers of well-known(ish) songs that have been reinterpreted by other bands closely linked with the hardcore genre. Think of this as the successor to the ‘Depression’s Got A Hold Of Me’ article that I wrote many moons ago. Enjoy.

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Throwdown - Baby Got Back (original by Sir Mix-a-lot)

As covers go, this can go both ways. One opinion is ‘dear god, this is worse than finding out you’re grandfather was Hitler’ or ‘I’m sorry, I can’t form a coherent decision on this track as I’m too busy vomiting my lungs up with laughter.’ Throwdown know the score, keeping the rap element in the track, but fuse it with their own trademark bludgeon-everything-to-death hardcore onslaught and that weird squealing guitar noise at the end of every riff. I’m not sure if it’s vocalist Dave Peters from Throwdown doing the rapping, but it’s definitely him screaming throaty tirades of fury on the track’s title and on ‘LITTLE IN THE MIDDLE, BUT SHE GOT MUCH BACK!’

Yeah baby, when it comes to rapcore, Limp Bizkit has got nothin’ on this.

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The Number 12 Looks Like You - My Sharona (original by The Knack)

In many respects, The Number 12 Looks Like You stick rigidly to the formula set out by the original (well, in the first 20 seconds) until the dual-vocal attack of Jesse Korman and Justin Pedrick kick in. What then follows is an attempt to out-shout each other (and add an impressive number of “woos!”) over the tight metal attack and solid sounding drumming. They certainly do the track justice, with the guitar solo at the 2 minute mark practically spot on. Whilst it’s as not as original as Polysics’ robotic-mash up of electro-pop bizarreness, The Number 12 do a good job.

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The Blood Brothers - Under Pressure (original by Queen)

Taken from the ‘Dynamite With A Laserbeam‘ Three One G Queen tribute album, Seattle’s Blood Brothers transform Queen’s pop-gem into a raging fireball of aggressive punk rock. Jordan Blilie takes on the lead as Bowie, his trademark drawling scream adding tremendous weight to Johnny Whitney’s child-like shrieks of sassiness. During the “this is our last chance” segment, Blilie shows just how strong his voice can be, keeping the low crooning tone all the way through, whilst Whitney loses complete control in the background, giving the track a distinct hint of unhinged chaos - effectively making the song pure Blood Brothers. Infinitely better than My Chemical Romance’s version, which was just an embarrassment to music. Urgh.

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Zombie Apocalypse - Welcome To The Jungle (original by Guns ‘n’ Roses)

Perhaps not the most subtle band in the world, Zombie Apocalypse seem to favour the ‘play fast, loud and screw what it sounds like’ attitude. Fair play guys. Any tune, dexterity, pure rock ‘n roll spirit that the original had has been destroyed by this rather meathead sounding cover. Whilst the intro sounds vaguely familiar, it’s soon lost under a wave of ridiculous over-zealous riffs and some rather unimpressive thrash metal. I suppose you have to admire their balls for covering this. What they lack in restraint and decency, they more than make up for in speed, rushing through the track in half the time that Guns ‘N’ Roses managed.

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Sounds

Below is the little ol’ mixtape player for you to sample and make your own decisions about the four tracks. Stay tuned for more in the coming months!

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By Ross Macdonald

Band - Less Than Jake
Album - GNV FLA
Label - Sleep It Off Records/Cooking Vinyl
Release Date - last week I think
Sounds like -The glory days of 2001, playing Mario Kart/Goldeneye and not having a care in the world.
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Leaving Warner Bros. records is possibly the 3rd best thing Less Than Jake have ever done. The first being writing an album as stunning as ‘Hello Rockview’ and the second their ‘biggest mosh pit ever’ at Reading in 2003 (I should know, I was there.) Finally free from the clutches of the money-grabbing, record-toning down corporate blow-hards, the ska-punk 5 piece are now able to release what they want, when they want on their own label: Sleep It Off Records. The result? ‘GNV FLA‘ a supposed return to glory days - but is it? Well, let’s see….

Let’s be straight about this, what I heard from ‘In With The Out Crowd‘ was pretty dire. (Hard words for me to say, as I’m a notorious LTJ fan) It was like a really fifth-rate pop-punk band ripping off Chris Demarkes vocals, whilst playing the most watered down mush ever created and passing it off under the glorious Less Than Jake name. Urgh. Thankfully, the Gainesville boys have got over this brief decent into madness and produced something that is more in line with their ‘Borders and Boundaries‘ work.

It’s a sombre, melodic start in the form of ‘City of Gainesville’; light-ska licks, coupled with a distinctly summery brass section and a slow drum beat. Then it suddenly erupts into a fury of punk rock splatter with ‘The State of Florida’ acting as the albums brief, but sprightly one-two punch. It’s the 3rd track where they really find their feet in the form of ‘Does The Lion City Still Roar?’ It’s classic ‘Jake – immensely danceable intro, a cracking chorus and an underlying beat that will capture the ears of fans of old with ease. Unlike their previous two albums, it seems as if trombonist Buddy and saxophonist J.R. have actually been given microphones to record their instruments into – the brass is increasingly prominent and a refreshing and welcomed return to their sound.

‘Summon Monsters’ sounds like a cut from ‘Hello Rockview’-era, whereas the fruitless-sounding nature of ‘Abandon Ship’ could possibly be directed at the band’s past attempt at stardom on Warner Records, especially in the line “treading water with weights around my neck, a shipwreck of restless accidents.” Perhaps even the line “Give me some forgiveness” could be directed towards those who gave their previous efforts a lukewarm/negative verdict.

What ‘GNV FLA’ seems to have that ‘Anthem’ really lacked is energy and a huge chunk of attitude. ‘Settling Son’ is an example of the terrific pace this album has. It also showcases the band telling the song’s protagonist to basically do something worthwhile with their life and even though it may seem like you’re in a precarious position; “walking the tight rope” it’s better to take the chance and make something of yourself rather than waste it going up in smoke, working in some shithouse factory.

Then again, the song could be about cigarettes.

The catchiest song ever for 2008 award goes to ‘Golden Age Of Negative Ways.’ Twee-handclaps, some outrageously parpy brass and lyrics that hark back to ‘Gainesville Rock City’ song-writing that slaps a huge grin on my face. ‘Conviction Notice’ focuses on financial troubles, with the lines “money can’t buy happiness” and “dollars and cents are not making sense” showing that despite the band’s exuberant, adrenalin rush of punk rock, they’re concerned about fiscal matters, or at least are willing to sing about it.

What sets this apart from other Less Than Jake albums is the way vocalists Chris and Roger compliment each other so well. This is quite possibly their strongest album vocally; both singers singing to an exceptionally high standard for melodic punk rock, with Chris’s gravely drawl sitting nicely next to Roger’s slightly higher-pitched and grimy shout. This is easily their best work since ‘Borders and Boundaries’ and dare I say, possibly better than the 2000 release itself. A fine return then from one of my favourite bands, definitely one for the fans to sink their teeth into and a great starting point for anyone interested in exploring their music to see what the fuss is about - a solid slice of punk rock, with enough ska to keep the die-hard fans waving their arms and shaking their feet until the end of time.

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Sounds

Click on the player below to listen to ‘Golden Age Of Negative Ways.’

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Links

Less Than Jake
Less Than Myspace
Sleep It Off Records
Cooking Vinyl

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By Ross Macdonald

Sundays…. The day of rest… A day for the British ladies to sit back with a slim glass of Pimms topped to the brim with chunks of bloated fruits while the men play a well earned game of Cricket.. Or for two of us at keep it fast, a day to invent a Noise Band!

Our mission is to combined all the components of a budget Noise band recording session and make a set of tracks in a afternoon!

The equipment:

~ Vantage (CHEAP) guitar, with 4 functioning out of tune strings
~ Yamaha 4 pad electric drums brought 5 years ago with a chunk of student loan (a worthy buy!)
~ Mono Dictaphone for that rich quality
~ 2 (yes 2) stylophones!
~ 2 laptops, just for the fine tuning heh heh

So, we sat to think “how does Lightning Bolt come up with complex, distorted whip-lash tracks… Do they just say 1,2,3 and start bashing? Naaaah there is more thought put into it”

So with that thought in mind we pressed the record button and bashed away! 2 hours passed as we both moved from instrument to shouting and managed to have about 12 tracks!!! ranging from 20 seconds to 5 minutes… Some sounding bad.. Some not even listenable!

Now it was just a matter of mashing the tracks into some simple editing software and between us we edited 3 ready for you to listen! Plus we may of added a couple of effects…. Ok a lot!

So below is our band created in a Sunday afternoon - Hyperdrive Lizard - Enjoy!

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Band - The Night Marchers, duhh!
Support - The Kits
Venue - 100 Club
Beer - ouch.
Verdict - Whhhoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Ahh Speedo, is there nothing he can’t do? The man’s a tour-de-force of pure rock, there’s no denying that. His CV boasts the very cream of rock music, from his time in the mathy pioneers Drive Like Jehu, rock ‘n’ rollers Rocket From The Crypt, surf punks the Sultans and the barbed frenzy of Hot Snakes. Now he returns with The Night Marchers and boy are they something.

Before the main event, there’s the supports to get through. I’d arrived late at the venue, which I wasn’t to bothered about. However, what did tick me off was the only support band of the night decided they’d be late as well - thanks. Once The Kits finally started, I began to wish they hadn’t even bothered. I’d have much preferred to listen to the DJ spinning dad-era rock ‘n’ roll all night. Imagine the most un-offensive, watered down garage rock imaginable. Got that? Right, now add a hideously high bass tone and drown out all the guitars so only the piss-weak solos can be half heard, and add in vocals that sound like they’re being shouted at you in another room through a wasps nest. Yeah, I pretty much thought it sucked. Big time. Even Speedo seemed to agree with me: he left during the second track.

After some more ‘best of the 60’s volume 2‘ and several more pints of wallet-raping beer, The Night Marchers blasted their way on stage. Tommy Kitsos’s driving bass heralded the first song of the night in the form of the hip-shaking rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Bad Bloods.’ Just hearing Speedo’s “HUH!” as the song picked up was music to my ears. It’s a brilliant opening tune, with a terrific driving chorus and melody. Superb. From this outset, I already knew tonight was going to be a memorable musical treat. No disrespect to the other band members, but Speedo has the kind of stage presence that leaves you mesmorised. You’re drawn to his every word, laughing at his sarcastic and scathing humour, loving the quiff…if you were to look up the words ‘rock n’ roll’ in the dictionary, they’d be a picture of him giving you the thumbs up.

Faster than Speedy Gonzalez on Redbull, they launch into a raucous rendition of the first track from ‘See You In Magic’; the ever pleasing and chugging riffage of ‘Closed For Inventory.’ The Night Marchers might just well be the perfect band of Speedo’s that you can enjoy without being battered to death in a windmill of flailing limbs. Those of the glasses wearing nature like myself, had nothing to fear in terms of losing their precious eyes to a misplaced fist then to several misplaced feet as their only source of seeing power is ground into a fine powder. Despite this, everyone and I mean everyone was having the time of his or her lives. ‘In Dead Sleep’ ploughed it’s noisy furrow through everyone’s ears; it’s dark, menacing tones enveloping the 100 Club, whilst the joyous pop-rock gem of ‘I Wanna Deadbeat You’ brought on the first biggest sing-along of the evening (and perhaps my closest chance to hearing what a Rocket From The Crypt track would sound like live.)

The jaunty strut of ‘Who’s Lady R U?’ confirmed just how brilliant The Night Marchers are live. The gloriously riff-heavy bass work that slides into the hook-laden chorus is a joy to hear, as is a rousing rendition of the summery guitar-driven pop of ‘Jump In The Fire.’ At one point, Gar Wood started using his guitar as a ‘rifle’ to shoot members of the audience, wearing a smile that was so big it looked as if his head was about to fall off.

The highlight of the set though was the ridiculously brilliant 1-2 punch of ‘Scene Report‘ and ‘Fisting The Fanbase‘ two tracks that did not feature on ‘See You In Magic’ but should have. ‘Scene Report‘ throws itself around like as Tasmanian devil on fire; the energetic guitar work being put through its paces with real gusto - terrific slice of punk rock. Unfortunately my brain was knackered by beer and my only memory of the last track, was that it rocked. HARD. Possibly one of the best songs I’ve heard this year, seriously. With no encore (and rightly so, the only way they were going to top ‘Fisting The Fanbase’ was by playing it again, possibly faster) The Night Marchers left the stage like the sweaty gods they are.

My only regret is not seeing them on the other 2 London dates before, but then I’d have less money than Northern Rock and be visiting this website everyday. Goodbye.

Sounds

If you fancy hearing what The Night Marchers sound like, click below to listen to ‘Closed For Inventory.’

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Links

The Night Marchers
Vagrant Records

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Words - Me
Pictures - Marc Jeeves

Band: Down I Go
Album: Tyrant
Label: Undergroove
Release: Now!
Sounds Like: George W. Bush sneaking into the White House, Ceaucscu demolishing buildings, Pol Pot filling mass graves, Idi Amin dismembering his wife, Ivan the Terrible killing indescriminately.

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What’s bugging me at the moment is the fact that this album and this band will no doubt be overlooked, which is a crying shame. Since their inception, the London-based 4 piece known as Down I Go have been on a wild ride, from self-releasing a concept album about Dinosaurs; to their first proper release ‘This is Disastercore’ (also, a concept record about 13 of the most horrific accidents in the world.) They then self-released the mini CD-EP ‘This is Robotcore’ – 5 minutes of frantic, juddering noise-rock, before collecting themselves for their next album, 2008’s ‘Tyrant.’

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In many respects, ‘Tyrant’ is the iceberg that will sink any other band’s quest to make my ‘top album spot’ at the end of the year; simple as that. What we have here is 12 tightly packed bottles of potent rage, ready and waiting to explode with the force of several thousand history books fitted with several tons of gelignite. ‘Tomas de Torquemada’ (the first Inquisitor General of Spain) already raises the bar way into the stratosphere with its volcanic energy. The meandering riffs and sporadic beats bring to mind the work of Botch, but even more relentless and guttural, whilst the string section adds a new dynamic to their sound, strengthening the melodic parts (the very few that exist!) like the wheels on a torture rack.

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Grain-quaffing, land confiscating, murdering, Russian nutjob ‘Joseph Stalin’ is next. Sounding more like a distorted space invader theme, this track morphs into one dangerous blast of metal, complete with the wondrous chant of “GLORY TO STALIN THE GREAT!” which I find myself shouting at passers-by nowadays. No wonder people cross the street. Possibly one of the slowest, but sludgiest sounding tracks, ‘Stalin’ pulverises the listener with its starving hands, drowning the listener in feedback like rivers of blood.

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Not even the Romanian leader, Nicolas Ceaucesu is safe; and quite rightly so, the bread-stealing, house-demolishing shithead. On ‘Ceasucesu’, drummer Ben Standage adds his melodic, but gravely tone to the vocal proceedings, which compliment vocalist Pete Fraser’s staccato range. Possibly the most catchy song about bread-shortages ever and some lovely gnarly feedback courtesy of guitarist Alan Booth.

The finest moment however, appears in the form of ‘Saparmurat Niyazov’, and ode to the leader of Turkmenistan; a man who had an ice palace constructed near the capital, banned dogs/beards/ballet and had a huge gold rotating statue of himself created that always faces the sun. Bonkers? Just a bit. A well known fan favourite, it truly shows Down I Go’s potential as one of the best heavy rock/metal bands the UK has ever produced. The steady, rumbling build up that eventually erupts in the gang-chant climax of “TURKMENBASHI! FATHER OF THE TURKMEN!” is unsinkable.

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The sinister tones of Marek Bereza’s bass, herald the start of ‘King Leopold II,’ possibly one of the darkest, and sinister sounding tracks on ‘Tyrant.’ Pete and Ben’s vocals overlap to create a sinister droning monotone, backed by a throat-burning roar. In addition, the harmonies involved in the lyrics, ‘brutal torture, not your fault’ seem somewhat unsettling.
Those looking for more riffs than they can handle, would do well to listen to ‘Henry VIII’ (he was a shit) at full blast. It’s a track that lurches around just like the wife hording, excommunicating, arm-flailing, fat bastard. The use of trumpets on the breakdown is a nice touch, adding even more body to the track as the lyrics ‘birth burdens your rule!’ are shouted like a drunken football chant, despite them actually referring to Henry’s failure to acquire a suitable male heir.

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‘Idi Amin’ sees Down I Go rattle through 2 odd minutes of ‘difference of opinion’ style wordplay, by celebrating Amin as a glorious president, before slamming him for his irrational, brutal, racial and diabolical behaviour, backed up by some extremely techincal, glitch-heavy metal and some lovely ‘ooooaaahhh‘ backing vocals. Possibly the greatest bit about this track is the jam-session style jazz outro, that detracts from the harsh tones of the song in such a way, yet still feels part of the overall concept. Marvellous.

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The closing track ‘Ivan The Terrible‘ uses the subtle but gorgeous string section that has backed most of this album to full effect in the closing 2 minutes. It’s quite an unexpected change, as the crushing heaviness of Down I Go’s sound is suddenly replaced with the soft tones of the violin, viola and cello; only to return at a calmer, but stronger pace, culminating in one of the best closing tracks I’ve ever heard.

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Despite it’s modest running length of just over 30 minutes, Down I Go take you on a long and breathless ride. ‘Tyrant’ is certainly their most accomplished work to date and sets an almost impossible standard for the next wave of British metal and hardcore bands to topple. Lyrically, it’s a crash course in tyranny condensed into 12 rabid slabs of ferocious energy and erratically brutal musicianship. Oh yeah, just so you know - album of the fucking year.

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Sounds

Click here to listen to ‘Saparmurat Niyazov‘ from ‘Tyrant.’ Oh yeah, learn to ice skate!

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Links

Down I Go
Myspace I Go
Remember This Day Forever
Undergroove Records

Words - Ross Macdonald

She & Him are Portland singer-songwriter M.Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel (her from The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, Elf, Almost Famous and many others.) What intrigues me about this project is the fact that I’d not normally be sucked in to listening to such gorgeous sounding indie rock this easily, but after seeing a video of their performance on some American late night talk show, (I forget what it was called, and youtube is being about as helpful as a paper frying pan) I was hooked.

There’s no denying that Miss Deschanel does indeed have a beautiful voice. Compared to the warblings I’ve heard from Scarlett Johansson (yet another movie star attempting to make the transition between actor and recording artist) She & Him have nothing to worry about as regards the superior act - they win hands down. At times, Zooey sounds like she’s auditioning for Grease (no, come back!) - this may well be considered a criticism; far from it - her transition from the 60’s surf/rock ‘n roll swing of both ‘I Was Made For You‘ and ‘Change is Hard’ through to the 90’s indie of ‘This Is Not A Test’ and the velvet tones of ‘Sentimental Heart’ show off her impressive range and wonderful harmonies. Of course, M.Ward should also receive praise for his delicate and intricate composition, especially his impressive guitar work on ‘Why Do Let Me Stay Here?‘ which despite it’s overtly indie tones, reminds me of The Beach Boys and literally drips with a thick summer sheen.

She & Him’s debut album entitled ‘Volume 1′ will be released in the UK on the 14th July via Merge records. For those in America, the duo (featuring a backing band composed of the cream of the indie-rock scene; i.e. I don’t know, so check their Myspace) will be touring from the 23rd of July to the 10th of August.

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Sounds

To listen to ‘Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?‘ from ‘Volume 1′ click below:

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Links

She & Him Official Site
She & Him Myspace
Label Site
M.Ward Myspace

It is with great sadness that I inform Keep It Fast readers that London’s Cutting Pink With Knives have come to an end. The synthesiser-heavy pop/hardcore scribble have this (snippet taken from their myspace blog) to say:

“We are splitting up. No drama, no hatred between us . We’re just calling this shit to an end.
It’s hard to know how to say goodbye to something thats been the most important thing in our lives for the past 3 or 4 years, nothing i say can really encapsulate what this has meant to us and how odd it will be to not have it around anymore.
We’ve done a lot of things that we’re all really proud of, played some amazing shows, released lots of records and generally had a great time, but its time that we go our cute little separate ways.”

The band will play 6 7 final shows (3 on our fair shores, before playing in France and 3 2 dates in Belgium.)

I was lucky enough to see Cutting Pink With Knives several times and I can honestly say they were one of the most entertaining, wild and amusing bands I have seen. They will be missed. I wish Alex, Chris and Eddy good luck with their future projects.

Their 2nd album, ‘Populuxxe‘ (reviewed here) is available from Holy Roar Records. Their myspace blog also reveals details of a final release of their last recordings.

(I wish bands I really like would stop splitting up, it’s giving me a bad omen complex!)

Sounds

If you fancy sampling some CPWK pop-fun, click below to listen to ‘Airz‘ from ‘Populuxxe.’

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Links

Cutting Pink With Knives Myspace
Label

Since Essex duo Kunt and the Gang were introduced at Christmas by Keep It Fast everybody has has being reading about them! As you will see from our ‘most popular’ list they have even beaten interviews by Ex super band Some Girls and Electro-Industrial duo Angelspit! How is this possible some of you may ask?

It looks like over the last couple of years they have penetrated the minds of all under 30’s with their sexellent tales of multi-way wankage, obsessive thoughts of ‘front bottoms’ and of course a true milf ‘ballad’ to Carol Vorderman.

So as Kunt and the Gang release their third album ”one last wank and one last cry” which is the final to the wank/cry trilogy, we ask them a selection of intimate questions:

What can we look forward to if we slip in this new album into our players?

You can look forward to such a barrage of filth that you’ll feel the urge to run a flannel over your knackers when you’ve finished. I think this album has some of our best songs yet, “Men with beards (what are they hiding?)” is already becoming a firm favourite at gigs, and “I’m gonna lick you out” seems to be making ladies moist.

Has there being any pressure/conflict between you and Little Kunt in the making of this new album? If so dare we ask?

He’s been pressing me for more of an input, so I humoured him by letting him sing a couple of duets. He was off his face on crack most of the time so you didn’t know whether he’d be turning up at the studio waving a Swiss army knife around or crashed out at home with a pantful of runny big jobs.

Where do you get your inspiration from to make these masterpieces?

It stems from having a lot of time on your hands, which invariably turns into having your cock in your hand. I thought I would have run out of ideas by now but the more you tour, the more people that come up and tell you about the time they shit themselves and you think, oooh that’s gonna make a good song!

Has the lovely Carol Vorderman ever left feedback on the track you made about your feelings for her?

I was sure when I wrote the song that she would hear it, feel the love and it would end up in me inserting my manhood into her frontbottom. Unfortunately that still has yet to happen, but also I haven’t heard anything from her lawyers which makes me think maybe she hasn’t heard it yet.

If you could of had any guest vocals on the new album, who would they be?

It would have to be some female pop star I was trying to get my end away with, so we’d end up stuck in a booth together and I could barricade the door and do a Joseph Fritzel. So to rephrase the question: ‘Which female popstars would you like to take hostage and systematically abuse over a period of several years?’… It would probably have to be any of Girls Aloud apart from the wafty ginger one, Belinda Carlisle, her out of Altered Images, Billie Piper, Rihanna, Beyonce, Nina from the Cardigans, Kim Wilde circa 1981, Avril Lavigne (as long as she didn’t bring any of her fucking dreadful records) or Shakira.

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There we go! That explains it all then! Below is the fantastic track ‘men with beards (what are they hiding?) from their new album:

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Links

Kunt and the Gang myspace

Official site

Artist: Be Your Own Pet
Album: Get Awkward
Label: XL Recordings
Release: Now!
Sounds Like: An explosion in a pop-rocks and coke factory

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Album number 2 from Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet is an intense rush; so much so that it makes their self-titled debut seem like a wooden-wheeled Skoda. Those of you familiar with their output can expect 35 minutes of furiously fast punk rock shenanigans that will no doubt leave you with a racing pulse, shattered nerves and in desperate need of a cold glass of ale.

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Opening track ‘Super Soaked’ is a prime example of what to expect, hitting the listener hard with its high-speed guitars and thunderous drumbeats. It doesn’t let up from here. After vocalist Jemina Pearl’s scream of ‘look out world ‘cos I wanna have fun!’ it slams into ‘Black Hole’ with extreme gusto and Ramones-punk vigour. ‘Heart Throb’ tells of a tale of teenage lust, giving nods towards a distinctly 90’s pop-punk flavour of song-writing.

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They slow things down on ‘Becky’, a track which involves Jemina recounting a tale of a falling out between her and the protagonist (one that seems to end in the death of ‘Becky’ as the reference to “going to juvie for teenage homicide” and the singer feeling unremorseful, blaming Becky for the whole debacle.

Don’t expect any deep philosophical questions and theories to be raised in the next 11 tracks. They mostly concern things that Be Your Own Pet hold close to their hearts; i.e. partying, sex, food, relationships and erm…zombies?! Lyrically, it’s pretty immature, but who says punk rock has to be serious? Hey, Blink-182 made an entire career out of dick and fart jokes in their tracks so yammering on about ‘acting like a jerk’ and ‘popping pills’ is acceptable really. Plus, for them it would seem so out of character to create an album full of incredibly dull, piss-water indie rock wouldn’t it? I mean, growing up fucking sucks, so let’s have as much fun as possible! Tracks like the caustic frenzy of ‘Bitches Leave’ and the rabble-rousing chants of ‘Bummer Time’ are an excellent example of their spiky, uncompromising attitude.

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‘You’re a Waste’ dips its toe in the fountain of emo with its sombre overtones and Jemina’s blasé ‘I’m glad you’ve got a broken heart’ vocals. Any memory of this is blow out of the water by the noisy double-attack of the pizza-throwing pop anthem ‘Food Fight’ and the hammer-horror rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Zombie Graveyard Party!’- Easily one of the best tracks they’ve ever recorded.

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Those of you looking for an album that sounds like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing Ramones songs, ‘Get Awkward’ is an excellent and suitably bonkers place to start – it will blow yr mind.

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Sounds

To listen to ‘Zombie Graveyard Party!‘ from ‘Get Awkward‘ click below!

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Links

Be Your Own Pet
Be Your Own Myspace
XL Records
Infinity Cat