Get Wise - Clock's Ticking
Debut 7" called Clock's Ticking is out now! Ffo. Breakdown, Outburst and Warzone!
Plead The Fifth Interview
Sacramento, CA-based Plead The Fifth has just recently released their new seven inch, ‘Life Sentence’, on Arrest Records which a must hear for everyone into old school hardcore sound. Definitely one of the raddest records of 2011. I have caught up with Alex, the vocalist of Plead The Fifth, to talk about the release and what the band is up to now when the EP is out. !
Sacramento, CA-based Plead The Fifth has just recently released their new seven inch, ‘Life Sentence’, on Arrest Records which a must hear for everyone into old school hardcore sound. Definitely one of the raddest records of 2011. I have caught up with Alex, the vocalist of Plead The Fifth, to talk about the release and what the band is up to now when the EP is out.Last time we spoke it was in 2009 and it seems there have been some changes in the band since then. Can you tell us what’s been happening with the band during that time?
Since then we have had a few member changes and have played all over the West Coast a bunch. With the new members I've felt that our song writing has grown quite a bit and our current songs blow anything of the previous stuff out of the water.
Tell us something about Life Sentence? How is it different from your previous recordings and why such title?"Life Sentence" is different in the fact that we actually took the time to write the songs and think everything out and making them good. It wasn't just writing random parts and throwing them together. I also worked much harder on my lyrics than before. I just think it smokes everything else we've done, we're all super proud of it. as far as the title goes, it comes from one of the songs on the record with the same name. The song is basically about being stuck in your own head and thinking about everything too much. Not being able to forget bad shit from my past and carrying that around with me everyday.
In the previous interview you said the message is an important part of hardcore, as well as of your music. What are some of the topics you cover in these new songs?
There are a few. Personal stuff like what was mentioned in "Life Sentence", most of the songs are about stuff like that. A couple are about things I see in the world and in people that piss me off. I don't know if there is necessarily a message to any of them, but I feel like people could relate to them.
How did you hook up with Arrest Records and how does it feel to have your music released on vinyl?We hooked up with Johnnie and Arrest Records when he and I were talking about his band Word for Word coming out to California for some shows. I was gonna help him book the shows and we were gonna play the shows with them. Around that time we were starting to write new songs that we wanted to be put out on a 7 inch. i just asked Johnnie if he was interested and he said he was and it pretty much went from there.It feels awesome having our stuff on vinyl. Of curse every hardcore band wants that to happen and now that it finally has it's fucking awesome.
What’s your opinion about current state of hardcore? Musically, it seems kids start to appreciate raw and fast hardcore bands, judging how much support acts like Rotting Out, Backtrack or Take Offense have been getting.
I think the current state of hardcore is awesome, best it has been in years. Besides the bands you've mentioned, which are all great, there are so many more from all over the country such as Expire, Soul Search, Downpresser, Minus, Ill Intent, Truth Inside, Kicked In, Incendiary, and a ton more. I could go on forever. Hardcore is fucking awesome right now.
And beside hardcore what are your favorite tunes to bump?
Everyone in the band listens to all sorts of different stuff. Lately when I'm not listening to hardcore/punk/Oi I've been listening to a lot of hip hop.
Any new and upcoming bands from your area that we should be aware of?
Shambles from Sacramento is a really good new band. We share a couple members with them. Really rock/grunge influenced hardcore, it's really cool.
What’s the best show you played in 2011?We played a lot of awesome shows in last year. If I had to narrow it down, it would be a tie between, the Rotting Out record release show, Sound and Fury Fest, and Trapped Under Ice/Backtrack/Take Offense at my house. That last one wasn't really a full blown set, we hopped up during our boys' Pressure Point's set and played 3 songs, but it was fucking awesome.
Finally, what are you looking forward to for the band this year?
Looking forward to playing a lot more, touring a lot more. I wanna go all over the place this year. We're also writing some songs right now that are coming out really fucking great. I'm not sure what they'll turn into but I'm really excited about them.
Plead The Fifth joins Arrest Records
Sacramento, CA’s Plead the Fifth has signed to Arrest Records! The band formed in 2007 and play bouncy energetic late 80′s NYHC influenced hardcore. PTF is currently in the studio recording a new 7″ for Arrest Records which is being recorded and produced by skinhead OG Mike from Pressure Point. Please check out their social networking site and online store below and be on the look out for their new record this summer!
Anti You -Two Bit Schemes Cold War Dreams
Looking at the cover I expected some straight up dirty and raw crust or anarcho punk but in the end I got some upbeat and fast old styled hardcore/punk. I can’t say I wasn’t pleasantly surprised. The album starts off with a bang – Lobotomizer Man is a fast and damn catchy piece of hardcore with powerful, yet melodic guitars and tight beat. The rest of the songs don’t let down in intensity either, resulting in an aggressive hybrid of the best elements of hardcore, punk and rock’n’roll. This CD combines the new album, as well as Johnny Baghdad Ep and Pig City Life Ep. There’s not many musical or sound quality differences between the releases which means it’s all fun from start to finish. The true highlight of the album is the ability of the band to perfectly blend the positive punk aggression with melody. There's a whole load of catchy hooks, decent leads, crazy sing alongs and some absolutely brilliant vocals. Man, I tell you, some of these gang choruses can stick in your head for days! The tunes are ridiculously simple and catchy but far from being cliché. From the break-neck tempos to more melodic passages, this albums is pure win from start to finish. I can’t believe they’re not from Cali! Review: Dloogi
Label: Six Weeks Records
Year: 2011
Band's website
Stay Hungry interview
Stay Hungry started in the summer of 2008 as four veterans in the Swedish hardcore and straight edge scenes teamed up to show the kids what's up. Fast and in your face straight edge hardcore was on the agenda. Stay Hungry has just released new output, "Against the wall", which offers just everything the band is recognized for - powerful music and meaningful lyrics delivered with all the intensity hardcore got to offer!
Search Bloc hails from the city of Cleveland in the great state of Ohio and their sound is fast and pissed off hardcore, totally in vein of One Life Crew or Confront, laced with tight grooves and heavy hitting vocals. Read the interview to know why they're backed by Seventh Dagger and what should we expect to come out of this collaboration in the future.Could you tell us something about “Against The Wall”? What were you aiming for with this album and are you satisfied with the end result?
I'd say that one aim we had was to make a more focused hardcore record, compared to the 12” on Reflections. That record kind of went in different directions, not knowing where to lay the focus. There's some metal parts in there. Those are gone with the wind on ”Against the wall”, which in my opinion is a true hardcore record from start to finish. We were aiming for a feeling of “positive aggression”, and I think we did a pretty solid job. I am very happy with the outcome.
Lyrically, is there any main focus with the new songs? What do you want people to take from the album?
As I said we were aiming for a positive aggressive feeling. There are a lot of fucked up things going on, so we didn't want to do a LP with overly positive lyrics, sugarcoating all the crap we see. But we also didn't want to be completely pessimistic and negative. I guess the title seems like that, but even that lyric ends with some hope. There are a few songs dealing with hardcore, a few dealing with straight edge topics, a few more political ones, one animal rights track etc, and then it ends with a true posi lyric, “Loose ends”. It's pretty varied. I guess I'd like for people to be angry, but also feel like there's something that can be done.
You new album is widely available on blogs and P2P networks. How do you feel about it as a band when most of the kids today rather download the album off the Internet that support the band and the label?
Is it really? We put up a four track promo ourselves and we will put up the whole album soon. So I guess that kind of answers your question. You know, I used to trade tapes back in the 90s. What's the difference, really? Except for that blogs are less time consuming. I am not in this to sell a certain amount of records. We have done 500 copies of “Against the wall”, and if that's all we'll do, I'm fine with it. I am proud of the record, it's something we've accomplished together, and it will allow us to tour. And having the album on blogs will let a lot of kids know about us. If kids come to the shows and sing along and stage dive, I don't give a fuck if they downloaded mp3s or bought the vinyl. We also have to realize that so far we've only done vinyl, and a lot of kids don't even own record players.
And how do you feel about how Internet is changing hardcore scene? I mean, it’s a great tool for getting information and keeping in touch, but on other hand, you don’t see that many paper fanzines around these days and shit talking is getting out of hand on message boards…
Like everything else it has its pros and cons. I have written about this in Law and Order zine #1. For a band like ours, it has made things a lot easier. I have just finished booking a tour. Without internet, that would've been immensely harder. And sure, there's all the crap on message boards, but fuck it. Let's just feel lucky that forums and stuff like that weren't around when we were fourteen and new in the scene. Because let's face it, we would've made asses of ourselves too from time to time before we learned better. I am obviously a fan of paper zines since I invest a lot of time and energy into Law and Order zine. I wish more kids would be into it, but things are the way they are. All we can do is push ourselves and do something that kids might be into.
Hardcore can have such a great influence on the lifestyle and mindset of its followers. What's the biggest life lesson that you learned from being a part of the scene?
Oh that's a tough one. I mean apart from the lessons I learned from “No thanks” by Uniform Choice, which kind of meant everything to me as a teenager, I dunno. Lessons from the hardcore scene can't be completely cut off from things you experience and go through in life in general. It's all a part of the package somehow. But being a part of hardcore and straight edge for so long definitely made me embrace the fact that I'll always be sort of an outcast. I will never live a normal life. I will always be into doing stuff that others can't understand. I've tried explaining how hardcore and DIY works to co-workers, and it just doesn't come through to them. They keep asking if we get a lot of girls and make money and play in front of large audiences. Like I could give a fuck.
And how do you feel about hardcore becoming more mainstream?
There are different sides to this. In the mid 90s hardcore was BIG in Sweden. Refused could play in every fucking small town and have large turnouts. And that was pretty fucking cool. Nowadays there's a lot less kids. I think hardcore and punk needs to keep a certain level of vigilance to keep out forces that stand opposed to the DIY ethics. But I would also like to see more people at gigs. I mean, it hurts like fuck to stage dive if there's no one there to catch you. I am not really afraid of hardcore becoming more mainstream. Trends come and go, we'll see who gets washed away when the tide retreats.
What part of Sweden you’re from? Tell us about the scene in your area and bands from that area.
Me and Andy live in Gothenburg on the west coast. We have some cool bands here, like Fredag den 13e, Repoman, the might Commitment Crew and several others. The scene is quite divided, though attempts are made to lessen these divisions. We organize shows in a pretty large crew called Gothenburg straight edge. The other three in the band live in Linköping, which is three hours away roughly. This has always been a central point for hardcore shows in Sweden, cause it's located in a good place and has had many influential bands, like Outlast, Nine and Section 8 (the latter came from a village outside the city, but still). There are still fests there a couple of times a year.
I know you cancelled your tour because of the new album. Are there any plans to hit the road now when the record is coming out?
Yeah, when we realized the record wouldn't be out when we were supposed to tour, due to various reasons beyond our control, we had to pull the plug. It sucked so much ass, but it was the right thing to do. We can't take time off from work etc if the LP isn't out. And it sucked cause we desperately wanted to tour with Skull Crusher. Their 12” is incredible. But we have booked a 16 date tour in April 2011. We will be going by ourselves this time around. We'll be playing Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. I have a feeling it's going to be fantastic. It's been pretty easy to book, there are a lot of caring and nice hardcore and straight edge people out there, for sure. It's been a quite humbling experience to book it. It still feels weird that people give a shit about our old asses.
Are there any future plans you would like to share with us before we finish?
Come out to the tour, check out the record. Have a look at www.swehc.com. Check out the bands on the “We support Swedish hardcore, do you?” sampler CD. Be on the look out for new LPs by Anchor, Undergång and Angers Curse in 2011. Check out Boston Strangler, they did one of the best hardcore songs of 2010, “The truth”. KOTF 2011!
On Parade - Demo 2010
On Parade are from Bakersfield, CA and with their 2010 demo bring five slabs of fast, raw old school hardcore. There’s a strong SSD, Judge or DYS influences throughout the demo so prepare for some adrenaline pumping tempos with occasional powerful breakdowns now and there. That’s the beauty of it – they don’t fuck with heavy metal, there are no double bass breakdowns, nor tougher-than-thou attitudes. This stuff has been released on 7” by Desensitized Records. Download it!
