There is a lesson to be learnt about bands and that is always give them a chance as you may just find a gem. Of course at the same time there can be some terrifying ‘how are these famous??’ bands, such as 30 Seconds To Mars. But before I start one of those fucking annoying comment wars like on every youtube video, (no YOUR mum) I will cut to the chase…

One of my links led me to Lancashire’s Alternative to every music genre, Bikini Black Special. The 5 piece seem to have put on their dark worship robes at a full moon and thrown into the pot every type of music they can think of. But instead of a explosion of shit occurring on the final synth loop, these guys have completed the impossible. Or have they? Actually they have!

With a beautiful female vocal range mixed in with snapping bites from the male backing, it makes you listen to the lyrics rather then the usual Friday night pub band where they are just shouting to the drum beat (bark, bark!). As for the music itself, it is better to just watch the video at the bottom of this page.

Keep it fast spoke with Bikini Black Special to find out what is going on in their subversively seductive minds:

When you walk onto the stage to an audience who doesn’t know who you are, how do you try and make an impression to the crowd?

By standing impassively in a line, as if the Pet Shop Boys had somehow magically reproduced and staring, just… staring. Alternatively, usually what we do speaks for itself, just go in hard and loud and kick the whole thing off as we mean to go on.

Is there any difference between the tracks you record and performing them live?

Not really, no - we’re pretty proud of the fact that we do this big wide studio sound out there in the big wide world. We make a few more mistakes live, like.

Do you have any BBS followers? If so do they dress up for the occasion?

There’s a few dotted around - we keep seeing more and more of our world-famous Zombie Invasion t-shirt in the crowds, and occasionally bump into them on the street. We have a pretty wide fan base, ravers, metallers, old folks, and of course the fairly intense acoustic folk contingent - so they all dress quite variably.

Have you had any offers to have your music featured in a b-movie? If not would you accept offers?

Some animators wanted to use BBS tunes for the soundtrack to a movie about an alien invasion being battled by a tea drinking private investigator. Never heard any more about it. We’d be delighted to be on a B-movie soundtrack though, especially if we could be extras in the movie, zombies or aliens or something. Even better if there was a scene in the movie with zombie/alien band playing in some zombie/alien bar. It’s the dream.

If you were performing live and there was a power cut, could you still give the crowd a good time? If so how?

Using Laura’s firelighting skills, Paddy’s culinary skills, and Bobby and Andy’s raw physical strength and powers of intimidation, we’d cook Jonti and give everyone a good feed.

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Below is live footage of them playing the track Nagasaki… Enjoy!

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Links:

Bikini Black Special official myspace page

(I know this is a bit late, but meh.)

Rejoice! Those of you who favour Eastpack resistance backpacks, flannel shirts and black thick-rimmed glasses and bands like The Promise Ring (“proper emo”) then you’ll be pleased to hear that Rival Schools have reformed! Led by ‘I’ve been in lots of good bands’ frontman, Walter Schreifels, the emo/post-hardcore supergroup will be visiting our fair shores this year for several live dates, which run as follows:

June Tour!

11 London King’s College (very nice place, has upstairs toilets)
13 Donington Download Festival (LOL)
17 Birmingham Academy II
18 Leeds Cockpit
19 Glasgow King Tut’s
20 London Radio One Rock Show Session at Maida Vale
21 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

They are also expected to release a new album sometime this year, details to be confirmed sometime in the future. After the band split in 2003, a second album was rumoured to be circulating the information super-highway and was at one point available from Schreifels’ website. Although, it is thought to have been a b-sides compilation. Those unfamiliar with the work of Schreifels should note that he played in 80s New York hardcore bands, Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits as well as emo-types, Quicksand.

Also, I’ve decided they do sound a little like Bush, but y’know…. a good version of Bush.

*Awaits being stoned to death by die-hard Rival Schools fans*

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Video

Here’s a video of Rival Schools playing ‘Used For Glue.’ Proper good.

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Links

Rivals Schools last.fm
Wiki Page
United By Walter (fan site)
Record Label

Hey everybody do you like:

1) Wearing Hawaiian shirts all the time, even when it’s -25 and raining like a bastard?

2) Saying “pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, yo!” and dancing like a coked up windmill?

3) An abundance of trumpets/trombones/saxamaphones in your music?

4) Bands with ‘wacky’ tripled barreled names and songs about travelling?

Well then you will be pleased to hear that Gainesville ska punk metalheads, Less Than Jake are re-releasing their back catalogue through the record label Cooking Vinyl and their own label, Sleep It Off Records. So if you missed getting hold of their first album ‘Loser Kings and Things We Don’t Understand‘ like I did, you can buy it now (released 3 days ago) with all new brand-spanking artwork and a bonus dvd (which I think features footage of the album being played in it’s entirety.) Also, ‘Pezcore‘, the b-sides album ‘Goodbye Blue and White‘ and the DVD entitled ‘A People’s History of Less Than Jake‘ will see full re-release.

The band are apparently working on their 9th studio album (I know, pretty impressive for a band that sing about pez, leaving towns behind and some guy called Mike) which, according to punknews will combine ‘third wave ska and pop-punk in each song.’ Hmmm… we shall see. Seriously though, I can’t help but feel a little excited about this; I mean anything has to be an improvement on the songs I heard from ‘In With The Out Crowd‘ - urgh.

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Video

Here’s some footage of Less Than Jake playing ‘My Own Flag‘ at Reading Festival 2002 (yeah, I was there….)

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Links

Less Than Jake
Less Than Myspace
Cooking Vinyl
Sleep It Off

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By Ross Macdonald with help from punk news.

If the rumours are true, i.e. the tour dates they have posted on their myspace; then the self-proclaimed ‘greatest band of all time’ ArnoCorps (pronounced ‘ArnoCore’) are to return to the UK for what they call ‘The Sequel’ in July. Expect thunderous amounts of hardcore-action adventure rock ‘n roll and songs about ‘Predator’, ‘Total Recall’, ‘Commando’ and ‘Last Action Hero.’ - Ballsy!

Those unfamiliar with the Austrian/Berkley/California-based 5 piece (2nd bassist Der Wolf left the band recently) can have great fun reading their ‘Arnosynopsis’ here and check out the band’s bio here. Their only album, the 15 track masterpiece entitled ‘The Greatest Band Of All Time’ is well worth �10 of your hard-earned cash, if only for the epic-sounding intro.

Any self-respecting hero should make his or her way to any (if not all) of their UK shows this summer. In the words of the great man himself; “DO IT! DO IT NOW! GOOOOO!” *riff*

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Video

A taster of what you can expect at an ArnoCorps show. See you at the party Richter!

‘Collateral Damage‘ (note how the drummer picks people up as if they’re made of paper!)

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Links

Arnocorps
ArnoSpace
AntiCulture

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Words - Ross Macdonald

Photo by Tanner, AAP. (Taken from Arnocorps Myspace)

You know when you discover a band that sound so incredibly brilliant and you’re not sure if you can believe it, and you end up pinching yourself just to make sure you’re awake and haven’t dreamt the whole experience? Well that’s what I ended up doing when I first heard The Carps.

Yeah, yeah I know - blog posts raving about the astonishing talents of band “x’ and the jaw-dropping escapades of band “y’ (“look! The keyboardist crowd-surfs in a dingy! They have 7 drummers! The singer wears a costume made of meat!!!!!111!”) are ten a penny and usually really fucking boring, much like this one (jokes.)

Toronto-based 2 piece The Carps play a strange mix of punk rock, soul, funk (you’ve closed the page haven’t you? Sigh.) and electronica. Convoluted? Not really. Their minimalist approach of a singing drummer and bassist has been seen and done before, but they are completely different to noise-terrors Lightning Bolt, but appear to have more in common with the much missed Death From Above 1979. The bass rumbles with that familiar low-end sexual tempo, whilst the drum beats are even more furious (if possible) than that of Mr. Grainger. Vocalist/drummer Jahmal Tongue has as incredible voice; ranging from a sublime croon, to short sharp barks of encouraging fury with topical spoken word segments (see “Compton to Scarboro‘ which deals gangland peer-pressure, gun crime and one man’s struggle with his decision to rob a store.)

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As far as releases go, they have 1 EP out at the moment entitled “The Young & Passionate Days Of Carpedia‘ (which I strongly recommend) and are currently working on a follow-up EP entitled “Waves and Shambles‘ with a release date scheduled for April 18th. Tour-wise, the band has played a plethora of dates throughout Europe, including Fabric and will be bringing their brand of bass-heavy dance-rock to Paris and Antwerp in March.

Still want convincing that The Carps are great? Well, think a dirtier, sweatier sounding Head Automatica without the bullshit pop-hooks and a less volatile and diverse trunk-nosed 2 piece and you’re not far off. Or just watch the damn video below and buy their EP.

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Video

Click below to watch the video to ‘Compton to Scarboro‘. To hear tracks from the ‘Carpedia‘ Ep, click on the band’s myspace, official site or their last fm. Enjoy!

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

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Links

The Carps Space
Official Site
Last Fm

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By Ross Macdonald

Missing a support band at a gig is a double-edged sword. It can be a relief (example - you thank the gods you didn’t have to stand watching that musical car-crash) or it can be steel toe-capped kick in the shins - painful, for about a million years. This was somewhat how I felt after missing The Computers, but gig clashes are inevitable and sometimes we have to live with the decisions we make!

For a band with such a geek-centric name, their musical style is the polar opposite of what I was expecting. Naming your band after something made of “spiders webs and magic” (Superhans) is an instant wrong-footer in that respect. The Computers are a four-piece punk rock band from Exeter, who sound like a sexual combination of Henry Rollins-era Black Flag playing Rocket From The Crypt songs. They also give nods towards howling rock-n-rollers, The Turbo A.C.s combined with frantic speeded up, physco-billy punk. In fact, this pretty much kicks the ever-loving shit out of most punk bands I’ve heard recently. It’s quite malevolent, sharp and incredibly tight, with some gorgeous bass lines and guitar flourishes that make them stand out from the quite stagnant crowd of Epitaph-by-numbers, carbon copy posers.

They are also almost impossible to search for on the Internet, which gives back links to various operating systems I should be interested in as well as discounts in PC World.

Currently, the band appear to be unsigned (lord knows why) and their only material seems to be a self-released single/ep on their myspace page, which you have to message the band to get hold of. With dates in France and a gig supporting double-bass-toting oddballs, The Peacocks, catch hold of The Computers and their runaway train of riff-tastic, gritty punk rock.

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Video

I’m doing a terrible job of describing/writing about this band, so I’ll just leave you with this video of them, put together from tour footage.

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Links

The Computers Myspace

It’s only been 5 days, but already this New Year brings sad news to the music world. Charlotte-based rockers Hopesfall, have officially thrown their instruments on the bonfire and split. To me, this is hardly surprising. The band have had more line up changes than I’ve had rejections from members of the opposite sex, and after the departure of founding guitarist Josh Brigham during the release of ‘Magnetic North‘ (the band’s 3rd album), no original members remained since their inception in 1998.

Die-hard fans often stated that the band was ‘officially dead’ after the departure of half the band and the release of ‘A-Types‘ their critically acclaimed 2nd album (a radical departure from the screaming bile-fest that was ‘The Satalite Years‘.)

According to punknews.org, the band had fallen out with their label, Trustkill Records (apparently not the reason for the break up.) The split is supposedly a ‘long story’ one which the band feels they shouldn’t go into, even though numerous line up changes and tour commitment problems all possibly had an effect on the band’s future.

An unmastered version of a song left off of ‘Magnetic North‘ called ‘Saskatchewan‘ can be downloaded from their myspace. It has not been approved by Trustkill. (Actually, the untitled B-Side on the player sounds much better!)

For me, the split is sad news; Hopesfall were a band I had followed since discovering them 5 years ago, and ‘Magnetic North‘ was one of my albums of 2007. Here’s to new beginnings guys. *Raises glass*.

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Video

Live version of one of Hopesfall’s most famous tracks, ‘The Bending‘ enjoy, but please don’t windmill me in the face.

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Links

Hopesfall Myspace
Official Site
Trustkill

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Ross Macdonald

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Source - punknews.org

Yes folks, get ready to slap a healthy wad of bacon fat in your hair and style that quiff, get that black shirt/white tie combo, with the white braces out of the cupboard and perfect your best ‘WOOP!’ because Rocket From The Crypt have apparently set a date to release the posthumous CD/DVD package of their last ever show, recorded on Halloween back in 2005. According to Pitchfork Media, on February 26, the San Diego sextet will release ‘R.I.P.‘ through Swami Records and Vagrant, which they were part of for the Group Sounds and Live From Camp X-Ray albums. The extensive set list features 26 Rocket classics that spanned their 10 album career (yes,’On A Rope’ is featured!)

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Also, more news on the new ‘formally-known-as-Speedo’-project: an album release date is expected on the 25th March, followed by tours and maybe a trip to Europe! Woo! Yeah!

I leave you with some more RFTC related video-goodness in the form of the trailer released by those wonderful people at Vagrant Records:

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Video

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

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Source: Pitchfork Media and Punk News

Band - Adebisi Shank
Album/EP - This is An EP By A Band Called Adebisi Shank
Label - Pop U Lar Records
Release date - now
Sounds like - Instrumental bliss

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This is a review of the EP of a band called Adebisi Shank.

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I nearly left this review as that single sentence above, (after this review, you’ll probably wish I had) but I thought against it, as:

a) Not many people would get the joke.
b) It’s not really a review is it? It’s just me being pretentious.
c) I’d already made said joke in a live review of the band’s set a few days ago.

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Trying to describe a band like Adebisi Shank is a bit like trying to teach a cat how to play snooker. Pretty impossible; but with the right perseverance you’ll probably reach the ‘holding the cue stage’ until you finally crack and end up trying to stuff the unfortunate creature into one of the pockets.

There are so many things I want to say about this EP, but the real trouble is actually getting the words out. My fear is that this review will turn into a half-arsed meandering ramble about the 4 tracks on offer and really not do the band, or their music, justice.

First impressions are as follows. It reminds me of Oxes - this is a very good thing. Ok, so both bands are devoid of vocals, but it’s not that which makes them similar. It’s the outrageously nonsensical range of bizarre sounds and huge riffage that brings to mind comparisons to the Baltimore trio. Also, Battles seem to be an obvious influence, particularly on ‘You Shouldn’t Be In White‘ which sounds like it should be sound tracking some horrific inter-stellar spaceship battle scene. Yes, we have reached critical mass with the amount of effects pedals this band use, hurrah!

‘Horse‘ opens proceedings with a cacophony of guttural and slightly meandering bass that seems to explode in all different directions like a bearing in a pinball machine. The guitar work at the 1.39 mark is truly remarkable, interspersing wild glitch-filled squeals and erratic twists and quirks. It all climaxes in the last 35 seconds in an incredible rush of speaker-shredding riffs and monstrous noise-rock fury.

The steady drum into of ‘Jump Cut’ relaxes the listener after the pounding delivered by the heavy-weight ‘Horse.’ This second track sees Adebisi Shank mellow their sound, taking it into a more dream-like status, but still retaining their underlying sharpness and their ability to generally ‘fuck up’ what you feel music should sound like.

As previously stated, ‘You Shouldn’t Be In White‘ has “spaceship disaster movie” tag written all over it and very little else needs to be said on the matter, apart from the fact it’s one intense, mind-bending 4 minutes of swirling aural ecstasy; sounds merge into one before being fired out the other end like fragmentation grenade.

The last track, ‘Caddyshank‘ is perhaps the heaviest of these 4 songs, bludgeoning the listeners’ ears with its opening salvo of noise-fuelled vigor. It then continues to sound like nothing else I’ve heard before, as the over-indulgence on effects pedals leaves my mind a withered husk, before striking with and incredible post-rock-esque build up, that gradually falls and then fading out in a squeal of reverb and electronics. The end.

The EP can be purchased via paypal from the band’s myspace. It is also available for streaming purposes from their last.fm page.

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Sounds

To watch a video of the song, ‘Caddyshank‘ click on the player below.

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Links

Adebisi Shank
Pop U Lar Records

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Words: Ross Macdonald
Photo: Alex Sinclair
Video: youtube user ‘urjeurje’

This is a very sad and sore subject to talk about, but of course anybody who loves The Blood Brothers (and have been hiding under a rock) needs to know:

On the 8th of November they left this message on their myspace page:

THANK YOU AND GOODBYE

Dear Friends,

After 10 years of making music as The Blood Brothers, we have made the collective decision that our time together has come to an end. We feel extremely fortunate to have spent such a deeply memorable and amazing part of our lives with each other.

At this point, however, we feel it’s best that our futures move forward on separate paths. We’d like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the bands we’ve played with, individuals who have helped us make our records, and fans who have come to our shows and picked up our music throughout the years.

Your friendship, support and love hold such a profoundly special place in each of our hearts. We hope that the memories you attach to our music are as fond as those you have given us.

Thank you and take care, we’ll miss all of you.

Love,
The Blood Brothers

The Keep It Fast team have luckily seen these guys on three occasions, all of which were brilliant! We would just like to wish them the best of luck for the future and hope that they will bring out even more grand side projects. Cheers!

Here is one of my favourite tracks that they brought out (and is in video format) Trash Flavoured Trash Enjoy!:

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Side projects at the moment include:
Jaguar Love
Head Wound City
Neon Blonde