Rich

High Society – The Discrimination EP

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

This is a good offering of punk from Ashford’s punks High Society. This is their debut EP and sometimes when bands release their debuts well they’re rather crappy but this EP is definitely not crap! There are 5 tracks on this EP, tracks 1-4 being comical punk and track 5 well it will either amuse you or just piss you off. It is a few minutes of the band playing with a Furby that they got free with a McDonalds Happy Meal, and even if it does not amuse you, the band certainly found it amusing and had great fun making that track! Track 4 is entitled ‘Why Don’t We All Just Jump On The Ska Bandwagon?’ and rather mockingly contains a trumpet, so I take it that these lads aren’t too keen on the Ska Punk that’s going around at the moment. So here you have a 5 track punk CD that contains some strong vocals and also a lot of humour, not forgetting a track for all Ska haters. The band were going to splash out some money to get artwork done on the CD but in the end they decided to be very punk rawk and have written the name of the band and EP on the CD with marker pen.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Hacksaw – The Official Punk Rock Anthem Of The 2002 World Cup In Japan And Korea

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

I don’t know a lot about this band but I sure as hell like their music. I’m not sure what they would class themselves as but I think a fitting description would be ‘comical pop punk.’ The first track, ‘Anthem’ is a tribute to the World Cup just like you would except because of its title, but the other 7 songs on this c.d. are truly comical and catchy pop punk songs. In my opinion ‘Fox Hunter,’ ‘Lets Get Wasted,’ and ‘Geese,’ are the songs that really stand out on this c.d. and show Hacksaw performing to the best of their ability. Although the cover and title are to do with football, track one is the only one that is actually about football so if you are not a fan of football don’t let the title make you avoid listening to this c.d. as you will be missing out on a mighty fine c.d. Some of the songs on this c.d. would probably be classed as pop punk but there is also some punk rock on this c.d. so they use varying styles depending on the mood of the song. It is a very British sounding c.d. with typically British lyrics, for instance ‘Beer and whisky egg and chips, lets get wasted,’ this sounds like the typical kind of thing coming from a British person. So all in all this is a good mix of pop punk and punk rock with an essence of humour added into the bundle.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Chief Libido – Push Start

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

Before listening to this CD I was getting very excited. First of all, I found the cover art amusing as it features the band trying to push start and then I was about to take the CD out of the case when I saw the people that they thanked. ‘No Comply,’ ‘Capdown,’ ‘Spankboy,’ could it get any better than this?! The answer to this question was yes. The first track, ‘Pissin’ in the wind’ sounded really cool, kind of a Ska Punk track. The vocals are Punky with a Ska influence, and are really good. The drumming is also good as it is fast and has a Ska’y beat to it. The Guitars are also quite powerful and work well with the drumming. Track 2, ‘Since She Came’ has a Ska feel to it also and the way that the guitar is used to sing to you is really cool. They are a bit like 4ft fingers, a Punk band with a Ska feel about the music. The drumming is good and fits well with the Punky vocals. The guitar solos on this song are excellent and the Guitarist here sure can play! The third track on this EP is a cover of ‘Karma Chameleon’ and is carried out in a Punk fashion. I laughed when I first heard this track as that advert has been on TV a lot lately about BT with the phone that they keep getting their mate to ring up to hear the song played. They manage to cover this song well, punking it up loads and generally making a good job of it. The fourth track, ‘Life ends (when you’re dead)’ also has a Ska element about it . The Ska feel is really created by the Drumming and it is cool that they are able to do this. The guitar riff is strong and the vocals are kept very Punk to create another good track. The fifth track, ‘Push & Shove’ is also a good song and again the drumming creates a Ska feel about it. The vocals are good and Punky and the Guitars finish the beat off giving it a raw feel. The guitar solos are always good and the guitarist sure is good at what he does and knows his stuff. So special respect is to be shown towards him! Hidden away, a long time after the final track ends comes the hidden bonus track, which plays many parts o pop songs with the kazoo. This ends with them saying ‘***** off,’ and then ‘This has been 66 point shit FM.’ Its one of those things that you have to hear to understand and appreciate!

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Candycaine – Promo CD

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

This 2 track promo CD from Candycaine shows some fine work, with two cracking songs. It was the first time I had actually heard this band and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was – but also deeply saddened at how short this CD was. It seems to be emotionally driven music and just sounds really friendly and uplifting. I have been playing this CD over and over and I still have not got bored of it. The vocals in the first song, ‘Written All Over’ are lightly sung and it is really melodic making it a top tune to chill out to. The second song on this promo CD ‘The Callow’ is also melodic Emo and has light spoken vocals without any hardcore tinges; quite a lot of Emo seems to have more hardcore bits in but not this band. This is the sort of CD you could put on when you are working and be soothed rather than distracted and it really gets rid of all background noise sending you into a chilled out world. I really like this band and would rate them as one of the finest bands in the UK underground scene. If you haven’t already checked out this band, then check them out now, if you don’t then you will be missing out on one superb band and you are at a great loss.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Butterfinger – What More Do You Want?

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

This is a 4 track CD from the Leeds based band, Butterfinger. It is only their second EP but does not sound like it, it sounds like this band have been going for years because they have a unique sound and play some top quality tunes. The first track on this CD entitled ‘Random’ is very hardcore and fits in with the instruments well to male a very high quality song. The vocals are sung really well and the guitar riff is just so strong and then there is the power of the drumming. The second song on the CD, ‘Psycho *****’ keeps jumping from a hardcore sound to a more Emo sound and seems to work really well, which leaves you with a desire for more. The fact that it is unpredictable makes it twice as exciting as it would be normally and you never know when the style is going to change. The third track on this CD is ‘Don’t Think Less Of Me’ and it has a kind of Kurt Cobain sound that brings out the bands grungier side and I really love this song because it shows that the band are not afraid of change and can make any sound and make it sound good. The fourth and final track on this CD is called ‘Nothing Left To Loose’ and again shows the bands experimental side because it id more of a Punk track and even though it is completely different to the other 3 tunes it is still a great tune and you can tell that they are really putting their all into their songs. This band make some awesome tunes and even with such a high stanmdard they manage to incorporate humor into their songs so as well as being entertained by their great tunes you can also be entertained by their humor. This band are awesome and hopefully sometime in the near future I will get a chance to go and see them live.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Bulletproof Electric Revue CD

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

This is the third album offering from the band Bulletproof Electric Revue and is a good one too. Their songs have a unique sound and every song is completely different which shows that they have many different influences and take them from many different genres. In the song ‘Miles Gone’ they sound like The Prodigy but they do not sound like this is any of their other songs so really this CD is suitable for people into any types of music. Track 4, ‘Satellite’ sounds like a Sweet song so you can tell that this band have taken influences from 70s music as well. The brass section that they have makes them sound highly individual and tears them away from all the mainstream nu-metal tripe that is going around at the moment. As every song is different on this album it is hard to take everything in and digest it all as it is full of surprises and completely action packed tunes. There are 12 songs here, all packed with individual goodness and tweaks. These songs are all very melodic and sung very tunefully, with the vocals at a good pace that is not too fast, not too slow but just right for the pace of the instrumental side. It is hard to say who this band sound like because there are so many different styles to their music and it is impossible to pinpoint any one particular band that they sound like as it is just a mixture of many. There is some great music here and I hope to hear more from this band in the future. Check this band out if you are willing to try out something new, as this is definitely that. Maybe this band will make way for more bands like them.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Funeral For A Friend – Between Order And Model

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

Funeral For A Friend are an emotion driven band, like Hundred Reasons and produce powerful music that gets deep down inside you and the lyrics of their songs, even their sound just touches your heart. This band takes Emo and combines it with Hardcore to make their music not only emotional but also very hard hitting. This debut 4 track EP from them combines Emo with Hardcore in every single track and works very well, sending you on a rollercoaster of emotions as you sit and listen to it playing. Although it does contain a lot of Hardcore elements, it is still a very relaxing EP and you could easily sit in the bath listening to this and just chill out totally. Each new track is a completely different journey of emotions and when listening to it you can really feel what they are going through, and it is almost as if when you are listening to it you enter inside of their bodies and start feeling exactly what they are feeling. This is a great Emo/Hardcore mix and I would like to say everyone get this CD when it comes out on August 26th so you can sit back and relax.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Battleska CD

June 3, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

Battleska are based in Harlow and are an instrumental Ska / Punk/ Funk/ Swing/ Jazz band. They combine all of these elements to produce superb Ska fuelled tunes with lots of added surprises. The only vocals they include really are a few random Oi’s , but there is one song with vocals and for the most part they do not need vocals anyway as they are superb without them. The song that does include vocals is ‘Lets Battle’ and is a truly awesome song. The word ‘Oi come on, lets go, lets battle!’ really get stuck in your head after listening to it a few times and it is just awesome. They have a very unique sound to the few vocals that they have which makes them stand out from the others as they have such a new sound. They do not put on any whiney American accents and I respect them for this. The saxophone on this CD is played well throughout, on some tracks bringing a Ska feel to it as it is played in a traditional Madness kind of style. In other songs however, the sax makes them sound more Jazzy, but no matter what style they are playing they always manage to pull it off somehow. The drumming is quite slow paced on this CD as it fits in with the style of the music and if it were any faster it would seem out of place. The guitar and bass lay down the basic beat with the drumming on this CD and as there is an absence of vocals most of the time with this band, the saxophone really seems to come through and take the place of the vocals meaning that they are not needed. This band is here to entertain you, while also having a great time themselves. This is a good little 8 track here, and this band seems to take in a hell of a lot of influences.

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Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Interview with Dan from Graveltrap

May 15, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

Hey Dan, so how did you come up with the name of Graveltrap?
It was a completly random pairing of two words that we thought sounded good when we were 15! We were down the pub (like you are at 15) and were trying to come up with another tag other than ‘placid’ or ‘kneedeep’ both of which suck ass big time and didnt sound right…so we kinda liked the sound of two random words…radiohead…terrorvision…greenday etc etc. We only ofund out that it meant a formula 1 sandpit about a year later!! I wish we had a better reason for our name but it just kinda stuck…I was thinking of changing it to Trapt about a year ago but lucky i didnt what with that shittty new metal band and all!

You come from Milton Keynes, that town seems to have churned out a hell of a lot of great bands – is it a pretty friendly scene and do you all get on there?
We have loads of good friends in MK bands…Phema, Lupa & OddManOut are some of our best friends. When we first started gigging there wasnt much of a ‘scene’…just two venues in the whole city but one of them was run by our friend Paul who gave bands like us a stage to play on at the Pitz Club which was really when it all started. Bands like us and phema started playing regularly at the Pitz and started to gain a little following. We all came from the same school so knew each other but it was really when an ex-clown called Lee opened up ‘Blinding Music’ practise studios (RIP) that bands started to meet and hang out. That place gelled the whole scene together and we used to go up there all the time for a smoke and just chill out with other bands…and learn backgammon!! Thats my lasting memory of Blinding – a hell of a lot of skunk and backgammon…oh and a bit of music now and then…! I think because of these people and and a supportive rock journalist in the local paper we were able to help carve out an alternative rock scene which is now overflowing with new bands and fans which all centres around the Pitz…without The Pitz it would never have happened.

You have a lot of talent and seem to have an extremely refined sound for a young band with an average age of 19. So what’s this down to?
We’ve all been playing our instruments for fun for years…not just to be in a band, and although its taken on more responsibility recently weve always enjoyed practise and got a buzz off of progressing musically.If things start to get a bit stale and boring it usually means we’ve been slacking and not putting enough effort into the music and although we’re still predominantly 3 chord punk, every new song we do we’ll try something new for us and if everyone picks up on the vibe and buzzes from it then we know we’ve done a good song. Its the only thing that keeps it interesting as although playing live is amazing too, I really like that feeling of ‘wow – that rocks…lets do it again!’ that you get when doing a new song.

The album, ‘Concrete & Udder Chaos’ sounded great to me – were you happy with it as a band or do you think that you have a lot more to offer than that?
For us the album do*****ents where we’ve been for the last 5 years. We’ve got together the best songs that we’ve made since our first demo and rounded them up onto one CD, and that mostly inlcudes songs about growing up and being at school. Songs like ‘Kickin’ Chickens’ was written in 98 and was one of our first songs write up until ‘What About The Marigolds’ which we wrote just before the record. We are definatly happy with it in all respects, especially the production that Iain Wetherell did for us, but at the same time i think the sound of our newer stuff far exceeds the formulaic pop-punk of old. We’ve had a few slatings from various magazines about it being a pop-punk record…and it is! It sums up our experience of going against the grain of school authorites and our various encounters with girls and heartbreak and not fitting in…because thats what we felt at the time and what we wrote about. So we wanted our first album to sum up graveltrap as its been and what we’ve encountered as hopefully other people can relate to the same things. As regards what we have to offer i think we have a lot more…we’re taking what we’ve learnt from pop-punk and mixing it with a lot more riffs and time changes/breaks. All our new stuff excites us musically and is also a lot darker in sounds and lyrics. I think we’ll always be the punk rock band with the sing along chorus’ but we’ve learnt a lot from other bands about build-ups and breakdowns and how to shape the music to take you to different places. We’ve learnt that rocking out has more impact if you throw some slower bits into the mix and that more can be done on guitars than just thrashing on power chords…although nothing beats it 😉

What was it like touring with Solabeat Alliance, Whitmore, and Mixtwitch on the Over The Moon Tour?
We had a great laugh man. We learnt so much from them guys and as we played first we could just sit back after our set and watch a class punk show every nite!! We’re gonna hook up with them all agin in the next few months as we’re touring with each of them in succesion, so its gonna be like Over the moon part two for us…just extended over thee months! They all really nice guys and we got on well with all of them…sola beat let us sleep in their luxury van for a few nites and glen from whitmore put us up almost every other nite, and his mum did our washing! Mixtwich are just a constant barrel of potatoe twinged humour…even hearing one of them say ***** creases me up. When we first met the bands everyone was polite and quite reserved (until that nites party) but when we picked mixtwitch up from luton they’d been drinking all day and were wasted!! that was our first and last impression of them!!

I was actually on the boat for the first gig on the Thames, you didn’t play – what was the story behind that?
Well john had decided to make his own way down to London for some reason rather than coming in the van. It was about 20 mins before it set off and there was no sign of him…then i finally get through to his fone and he’s on the underground about six stops away. So with 10 mins to go I decided to run down to the nearest tube station to wait for him and show him the way to the boat…i waited for ages then got a call from Jon at Moonska (on the boat) that it was about to set sail and to get back. I just remember pegging it down the peir to see the boat just pull away from the harborgh and everyone on top waving at me…i felt like such a dick!! Then to top it off i saw Muzz (with his broken arm) and Alex pissing themselves and giving me the finger from the top deck. I was gloriously gutted and suitably embarresed!! So i did what anyone wud do…went straight to the offy and got a quart of vodka, sat in the park and got pissed!! I found some other mates who had missed the boat too and we got heavily sloshed and tryed not to think about how much i wanted to kill john!!

Where do you see yourselves as a band in three years time?
With the same three people playing our music to hopefully a bigger audience. You can never tell where you gonna end up in the music industry but as long as we keep doing it for us and people dig it then thats all that matters to me. I never want it to grow stale though and we’ve been lucky enough to feel as though we’ve progressed consistantly over the last few years so hopefully we’ll continue to do so. Whether we get another lucky break and reach the point of major label sucess or whether we keep playing the clubs and releasing records on Moonska, we’ll continue to do it as long as its fun and people are enjoying our music.

Do you have any advice for young people looking to form bands of their own?
I dont really have any advise for people looking to form bands as i think if they want to do it they shud already be in one. A lot of people i know talk about being in bands and forming bands and it never happens. If you enjoy playing your instrument and writing your own stuff then you will find other similar minded people if you stick to your music…just hang round the music block at lunch, take music GCSE, whatever it takes to get in with other musicians then just do it. Write a song, show the others it then play play play play play and play. You gotta practise at least once a week if not more. Cover other songs to make you tighter if you want, but just play. And when you good enough (and not until) record a basic demo and send it to your local venue. Practise and gig when ever you can, thats all id say.

Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.

Interview With Alex from [spunge]

February 4, 2004 by Rich Leave a Comment

Hey there Alex, introduce yourself to the people – what do you do in the band?
Hiya. I’m Alex and I want world peace and I like fluffy dogs… oh, and I’m the lead singer for [spunge]

How did you come up with the name of [spunge] for the band?
Got drunk, said a load of names, laughed at that one, kept it!

How many years have you been going now?
About 10 or 11… bugger, now I feel old…

You have released three albums – what is your favourite of the three and do you feel that your albums have matured as time has gone by?
Hard to say… I like them all obviously or we wouldn’t have done them!! I’ve tried to pick one but I like them all as much for different reasons, I know that’s a get out answer but it’s true!! I would say that they have changed as we have gone on but I dunno if ‘mature’ is a word anyone would use to describe us lot!!

What is your favourite band to play with and what do you feel is the best gig that you have ever played?
Do you mean that we have played with or would like to? If it’s the former then for me I’d say NOFX or Greenday, both big influences and both a bunch of genuinely cool people…. as for who I’d like to gig with that’d be Sublime but Brad the singer is dead so that ain’t gonna happen!! 🙁 The gig that stands out for me is either Cardiff Castle with Greenday or Download with NOFX just because of who we were on the bill with but there are plenty of smaller shows that I love… ***** it, anywhere I can sing in, I love!

Who is the smelliest member of [spunge] that everyone complains about when you are on tour?
Jarvis without a doubt…. and not just when we are on tour either…

Do you prefer to play gigs or are you a band that feels more at home in the studio?
Definitely gigs, the studio is cool but gets really boring really quickly… we’ve always been a live band and that’s what we love to do the most!

The band split from the label b-unique a while ago – what was the reason for this split from the label?
They didn’t want us any more ’cause we had the guts to tell them we thought they were doing a lot of things the wrong way… no hard feelings, just a lack of understanding I think…. enough said.

Are you in talks with any other labels and do you plan to release another album in the near future?
We’ve got a load of new tunes already written (about 16) and we are gonna be sending them out n about, a couple of labels have expressed an interest but they wanna hear the new stuff so it’s all still up in the air… Whatever happens there will be a new album even if we do it ourselves, which is something we are seriously thinking about…

Where do you see this band heading in two years time?
More gigs, more fun….

Have you enjoyed your time in [spunge] and have you found some good friends in the other band members?
Yeah, we all get on great, in fact we are the only band I know that don’t hate each other!! We live in each others pockets for most of the year… I couldn’t stand not getting on with them!

Do you have anyone that you would like to thank?
Too many really but the main lot is the cheesy one… the fans, it may sound cheesy but they really mean a lot to us, it’s great to know that even without the bullshit that comes with trying to make it as a band the one constant are the people that like your music, not how much money you can make for them…. and of course all our mates and families!!!
Laters, Alex

Rich

UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.