Coldburn to drop new album via Cobra Records
Listen to the entire Consumed 7" by Retribution
Hoods working on new album!
Strictly Business: Darin from Westcoast Worldwide Records
If you have been into hardcore longer since last week you probably know Westcoast Worldwide Records. The label has been responsible for bringing you albums by likes of Hoods, Out For Revenge, Brawl or Hammerfist and they worked with classic acts, just to name Folsom, Lionheart or Above This World among others. None hardcore kid who respects themselves can deny these are some dope bands that know (or knew) how to deliver that hardest edge of this music. This is interview with Darin, who in charge of this lucrative enterprise when he’s not fronting Out For Revenge.
If you have been into hardcore longer since last week you probably know Westcoast Worldwide Records. The label has been responsible for bringing you albums by likes of Hoods, Out For Revenge, Brawl or Hammerfist and they worked with classic acts, just to name Folsom, Lionheart or Above This World among others. None hardcore kid who respects themselves can deny these are some dope bands that know (or knew) how to deliver that hardest edge of this music. This is interview with Darin, who in charge of this lucrative enterprise when he’s not fronting Out For Revenge.Let’s start from the beginning. How did Westcoast Worldwide come to be? Where did the first idea come from to start a record label and what were the goals back then?
Westcoast Worldwide was started in the late 90's by Mikey Hood, who we all know as singer/guitarist/general rad guy of the legendary band Hoods. The original purpose of the label hasn’t really changed much since then. It’s all about getting quality bands that are staffed with quality people heard, and that song pretty much remains the same today. We do things with ethics, and integrity, and we feel that that is something really important that we not only owe the scene, but to ourselves and our bands in return. We exist more like a family then anything, and that’s an element that remains very important to us. We believe our roster is stocked with some really talented people, who above and beyond all else are personally great people that can do great things for the world.
What do you feel is the driving influence behind the label nowadays?
I’d say what keeps us going is more or less the guys that were there before us, that paved the way, and trying to live up to what they created, while at the same time watching the new kids make and create things that continually keep us inspired.
Can you tell us how WestCoast Worldwide operates? Who is behind the label? It was started by Mike Hood, but with him being on tour so much time, it’s you who runs the business?
Well, Mike owns the label, and he gets involved whenever he can. Right now he is in the process of opening a barber shop in Sacramento, California called True Blue Barber and Shave Parlor, and that keeps him very busy in addition to Hoods. I basically run the day to day shit, and recently Brandon Wells (Vocalist from Havenside) joined the team, and he handles a lot of the web based promotion stuff.
What has been the hardest thing as an independent hardcore record label?
You have to make a lot of personal sacrifices. It’s basically a full time job that you don’t really get paid to do. Doing something like this is huge hours, and its hours that we don’t get to spend with our friends and families. I’m lucky that I have a home office that’s pretty comfortable, so me and my wife (who by the way is cool as shit, and extremely patient) spend a lot of time chilling out in here, but it’s tough when the phone is ringing off the hook at 4:00 in the morning, and a band is having van trouble, there was drama somewhere, or a show got cancelled or something, and you have to deal with it right then and there. My phone rings pretty much 24 hours day 7 days a week and that gets a little trying sometimes. I also don’t get to go to as many shows as I’d like to anymore because of the time this takes up too, but the way I look at it is that if I have to miss a show I wanna see so that thousands of kids all over the country can see their favorite WCWW bands play in their town, it’s worth it. I’ve been to probably a good 3500 shows in the last 12 years or so, so I’ll survive. I wanna make sure kids have the options available to have experiences like that for themselves too. I really do love doing this label, and was a huge fan of it before I got involved with it, and I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by awesome people so that makes it even better. I feel very honored that I get to do this most of the time.
Everyone throughout the music industry says that the record sales are dying in the modern digital age. How are labels like yours addressing this challenge?
It’s totally the truth. Record sales will never be a real financially stable means of revenue ever again. The standard has been set, and it will most likely never be broken. Right now it really breaks down to an album being nothing more than just a really expensive business card for your live show, or your clothing line. That’s really what it’s about right now. You have to sell a tangible product in order to get there now, and as backwards as it sounds, in most cases music has now become somewhat of an intangible. However one of the things that’s great about the hardcore scene (and seems to have died out in most other genres) is the fact that kids will support you financially if they like you and/or what you do. Sure they might steal your album off the internet, but if it’s something they connect with they will turn around and buy things from you, and they will support you in whatever way they can, which is a true testament to what the hardcore scene is really about. This also places major importance on artwork. Artwork and the lure of holding something tangible in your hard is one of the only factors left in somebodies decision either to buy something, or just steal it. Having a complete product that has obvious quality has never been more important than it is today.
How do you see modern technology, like Facebook, mp3s, youtube etc., affecting the way you run the label?
The internet really has two sides to it for a label like us. On one hand it allows your artists to be exposed to a much larger audience much more quickly, which is awesome. However on the other end, it pretty much ensures that you are never going to make any real money for your efforts as a label if you do things honestly. The second part of that is sort of irrelevant to us though. WCWW isn’t about making money. It’s about the bands, and the kids, and doing something right and honorable for the scene. It seems like lately that a lot of people are flooding the scene looking for a paycheck, and I think a lot of good bands and good people get fucked over in the process of people like that figuring out that theres no real money in hardcore. Sure we like to see our bands make as much money as they possibly can. It keeps them on the road, and making merch, and generally doing their thing, but I think for anybody that’s actually doing it for the right reasons, getting your message or opinion out, and letting your music be heard is the most important thing. From a label standpoint that doesn’t do much for us, but it’s good for the bands. We always want to see them get paid before we do, and things like bigcartel, and bandcamp have provided them with ways to accomplish that with more convenience, and it’s easy for us to help them by driving traffic to those types of sites. We as a label basically lose money 100% of the time, but we really don’t care. This is a labor of love for us, and the internet really helps with that end of things. So yeah, it has affected us a lot, but the bottom line is for a label like us, we see it as being a very useful resource.
From Hoods to Give Em Hell to Brawl, your rooster is quite diversified stylistically. How do you choose artists to work with?
Hardcore is a very diverse form of music, and we like WCWW to reflect that. We all love a lot of different styles of hardcore, and we know most people who are into this music do to, so we just try and represent all sides of the genre, and try and offer something for everybody. As for how we choose artists, they need to meet three basic sets of criteria. First, they need to be great at what they do musically. Second, they need to share the same passion for hardcore that we do and demonstrate a work ethic that we can respect. Third, (and in some respects the most important part) they need to be quality people. This means if you wanna run around and start shit everywhere you go, we aren’t the label for your band. If you have some giant shitty attitude, we aren’t the label for your band. If you wanna half ass everything, and let your fans down either musically or personally, we aren’t the label for your band. Character is a major thing for us. We put a tremendous amount of work into the bands on this label, and we don’t have time to waste on assholes or drama queens.
You often mention that a band has signed to Westcoast Records. What does signing to Westcoast Records entail?
It means you are member of our family. We work with you to make a better product, we hype you, we help you with shows, and stuff on the road, and we push your music world wide. Same thing any other label does I guess. haha
Any words of advice to bands trying to contact you and submit a demo?
Not really other than the standard stuff. Make a quality demo, go play shows, make somewhat of a name for yourself, and then hit us up on www.westcoastworldwiderecords.com I guess. Nine times out of ten we don’t sign bands from demos. We do a lot of research and generally we know what’s out there most of the time. we usually directly contact bands were interested in. however I don’t want to discourage anybody from hitting us up though. If you got something great, we for sure want to hear it!
What’s your standpoint on artwork for releases? I am asking cause I really do like the visual aspect of your albums. From cover art to photos on your website, everything looks professional and with a keen attention to details.
If you really break it down music is art, and so we feel those things kinda go hand in hand with each other. Ultimately a huge part of your product is visual appeal, and most times that is the first thing that the listener is going to be exposed to with a complete package like a cd/mp3/website/etc. We basically want to set the right initial tone for the listener, and make it a more complete experience for them. That’s something we really try and push on our artists too. Don’t just write a bunch of songs and glue them together. Try and make a complete experience for anybody that’s going to fork over their hard earned money for what you have made. Listening to one of our bands we feel should be an all-encompassing type of thing that you not only see and hear, but also feel. One of our biggest goals as a label is to make sure that a listener is gonna feel like they got more than their monies worth when it’s all said and done, and we don’t feel like we have done our jobs until that goal is achieved 100%.
What are your goals and plans for 2012? Have you got any forthcoming releases on your label? Anything else major on the horizon?
We have all kinds of stuff going on in 2012. We just put out new albums from Havenside and Brawl recently, and we just signed a great band from Washington called Cowardice. We also got a bunch of new shit coming out from other artists already on WCWW this year too. We do have some additional things in the works, but you all are gonna have to wait and see on that stuff. Keep an eye on www.westcoastworldwiderecords.com. We’re pretty good about keeping people up to date on there.
Anything else you’d like to mention? Any shout outs? Message to haters?
Wed like to give a shout out and a thank you to anybody that not only supports us, but hardcore in general everywhere in the world. This kinda music can be somewhat thankless a lot of the time, but that is sort of irrelevant in the grand scheme. We do this for the kids, the bands, and the friendships, and experiences that we get out of this. This wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for all the great people around the world that love this music like we do, and that’s why we do it. It’s for all those people. As for the haters? We have no time for haters. We don’t even see em.
Westcoast Worldwide: Website; Facebook
Vulgar Display - Demo 2012
Guns Up! - ‘All This Was’ Documentary
Guns Up! is streaming the entire ‘All This Was’ DVD online, which includes goodies like live shots from their last and final show, interview with the band members and other footage from their tours. Especially the live set is incredible, with great sound quality and crazy stuff going with all the stagedives and sing-alongs. The band has not been around for some time already but they obviously left their mark on the scene. Not to mention the music that still sounds powerful and honest.
Get 50% discount at Strikedown webstore this Thursday
Rise After Defeat - Unknown
Song taken from the Pragmatica EP, available in streaming and as a free digital dowload and in a limited CD edition.
Knuckledust - Bluffs Lies Alibis
Great song, great video, great band! Knuckledust proves once again they're in the league of their own when it comes to that gritty ruff hardcore sound. New album Bluffs, Lies, Alibis is out on GSR Music!!!
Outright launched pre-orders for Dedication 7"
'Sic Semper Tyrannis' by Territory available for free
Strength Approach - With Or Without You
New clip for the title track from the band's latest album, With or Without You.
Truth And Its Burden to tour Europe in August
04/08 DENMARK // Fredericia – Days Of Fury Fest
05/08 GERMANY // TBC
06/08 GERMANY // TBC
07/08 POLAND // Wegrow – In Decks Musiclub
08/08 POLAND // Bielsko Bala – Rude Boy Club
09/08 CZECH REPUBLIC // Jaromer – Brutal Assault Festival
11/08 BELGIUM // Ieper – Ieperfest
12/08 AUSTRIA // Haag – Böllerbaue (with A WILHELM SCREAM)
13/08 AUSTRIA // Gleisdorf – Kulturkeller (with DEATH BY STEREO, DEVIL IN ME)
14/08 AUSTRIA // Vienna – Aera (with DEATH BY STEREO, DEVIL IN ME)
15/08 CZECH REPUBLIC // Ostrava – Barrak Music Club
16/08 POLAND // Gdansk – Buffett
17/08 GERMANY // Berlin – Cometclub
18/08 GERMANY // Hohenstein-Ernstthal – Voice Of Art Festival
Strife joined 6131 Records. New album in the works!
South California’s legends Strife have signed with 6131 Records for the forthcoming release 'Witness Of Rebirth'. The album will be available on CD/LP/Digital. The labels said: “Some bands leave such an impression on fans that, even after two decades, their sound still resonates deep and wide. Southern California’s Strife are just such a band, having once again tapped into the energy that has kept listeners interested for 21 years. (…) As long-time fans, 6131 Records jumped at the chance to release Witness A Rebirth.“ Check out short preview of the album after the jump!
Listen 'Controlled' from the upcoming Hardside album
Back To Queens, new The Mob 7" is available
Download Ten Of Swords vs Lifeless split for free
Bitter Taste Of Life vs. 45 Stainless split is available
Lose The Life September tour details
27/9 Copenhagen, Denmark
28/9 Haarlem, Netherlands
29/9 Amsterdam, Netherlands
30/9 Karlskrona, Sweden
Ante Up - Prelude To Hell
Crowd Deterrent - Japan Tour 2012 Documentary
Watching recent Crowd Deterrent videos makes me think about how excited I was when I first heard Real Domain song by you know who. Everything about this style of hardcore is appealing. Crowd make some great tunes and have the ability to get their point across with great ease. They ain't taking no shit from anybody and play by their own rules. Musically, there’s always a hook to sing along with and easy-to-follow verses so I can just imagine the mayhem they cause during live shows. It's equally ignorant, provoking and violent, but they're also about staying true, respecting yourself and most of all, cheesy horror movies. This video is short documentary for band's Japan Tour 2012. Filmed by David Wilson. Produced by Downpour Creative and Crew Life. Get ignorant, bitches!
Get Wise - Clock's Ticking
Debut 7" called Clock's Ticking is out now! Ffo. Breakdown, Outburst and Warzone!
Human Demise - Of Wicked Men and Their Devices
There’s no radical departure from what they did on previous releases, but it is all presented in a more mature and condensed package. No-nonsense, every song hits hard. It’s hard to listen to this stuff without letting the adrenaline and aggressive urges go into effect. And don’t confuse it with that Holy Terror hype that has seem to be going on recently.
The album is filled with high points and its best when listened as a whole. With their stabs at Clevo-style Human Demise manages to hold their own and does not fall into any clichés. The raw and gritty hardcore that fills Of Wicked Men… from the start to finish matches quality of any other hyped album of 2012. Human Demise has made its mark with today’s hardcore audiences by making it sure listeners can always count on the band to deliver in terms of a quality.
WTF RECORDS
Cast Iron Jaw - Bound By Ignorance
A critical measure of how successful is an album of this kind is how much variety is in the tracks without drifting too far from the core sound. In other words, how well all the elements go together so the album can be enjoyable from start to finish without using any cheap tricks like shitty clean vocals or whack rapping parts. And we all know that some bands got no shame when it comes to mixing hardcore with this type of crap and the results are usually pathetic. In case of Cast Iron Jaw, the album isn’t void of missteps, but it delivers what you would expect from such record. The sound is hard, the songs are nicely put together and vocals sound like they wanna cause a serious damage to the listener.
While the production is not as beefy as it should, some of the parts here still sound heavy enough while others lack a bite. I also would also get rid of some of the unnecessary passages in the songs which doesn’t add anything and just make the songs sound less focused. Overall, while not as intense as Shattered Realm, whose influence can be heard in some of the slower parts of the album, Bound By Ignorance is well crafted and strong album. I hope for even better next one.
BadAss!! Records
Traveler - Nothing Lasts Long Enough
Listen to 'Life, By The Code' by Cleveland's Search Bloc
Listen to new songs from The Wrath!
Booze Riot releases '...Strikes Back!' EP
New releases from Set Me Free
Ralph Macchio - Forget The Past
The song is taken from Welcome To Your Doom album, out on Caustic Records
Elapse Interview
The energy and dedication that burst out of every song at Storm, the recent EP by Sweden-owned Elapse, makes you think why this band is so criminally underrated. It’s a shame cause they got enough skills and ideas to make their hardcore both sharp and meaningful. The strong DIY ethic within the band makes them release all their stuff all by themselves and usually straight for free download.. That was the case with their previous album, The Mockracy, and that is also true for Storm. I got nothing but respect for the bands that handle their business and I would be glad if any of the kids reading this who have not heard Elapse, would go and check this band.!
The energy and dedication that burst out of every song at Storm, the recent EP by Sweden-owned Elapse, makes you think why this band is so criminally underrated. It’s a shame cause they got enough skills and ideas to make their hardcore both sharp and meaningful. The strong DIY ethic within the band makes them release all their stuff all by themselves and usually straight for free download.. That was the case with their previous album, The Mockracy, and that is also true for Storm. I got nothing but respect for the bands that handle their business and I would be glad if any of the kids reading this who have not heard Elapse, would go and check this band.Can you give some background on Elapse for those out there who are not familiar with the band? How and when it all started?
The members of Elapse are Love Thübeck on vocals, David Shanks on drums, Simon Flack and Robin Eriksson on guitars, and me, David Tapojärvi, on bass guitar. This band started around 2005 before I played with them. They played all sorts of metal with a lot of different influences, and in 2008 they found their way into hardcore and recorded a 3-track demo under the name of "40+ Bareback Hunterz". I joined them in late 2009 and in 2010 we became "Elapse". We recorded a demo/EP called "General Errors" and in 2011 we released "The Mockracy".
You have just put out a new EP called “Storm”. Can you tell us about that?
It's an EP containing five songs. It was recorded here in our home town Örebro a few months ago and we're just really happy that it's out!
My first thought was that the title might allude to Judge, but is there any other meaning to ‘Storm’?
The title was a bit longer at first. I had a title flying around in my head which was "Storm on a path", then Simon suggested to cut it down to just "Storm". It points to the feeling that nothing ever goes right. That your path, so to speak, is just doomed to fail. I guess it's a bit like the classic "rain cloud over head"-thing.
Is there any chance that ‘Storm’ will be released on any physical format?
"Storm" was actually just released physically. We made a CD version out of it ourselves and it turned out great. On our previous EP "The Mockracy" we had great artwork and all that, but we just slipped hand written CD-R's in to a plastic pocket, which worked okay, but this time we thought if would be fun to make something more "real" out of it. Now it looks like a proper CD release. We've also been talking about putting "Storm" on vinyl, but we're not sure what will happen there. It's also available for free download at a bunch of places, and will soon be on Spotify too.
Lyrically, these songs carry a rather negative tone. What is the main driving force behind your lyrics? What motivates you to write the way you do?
The songs on "Storm" are not necessarily based on concept, but I wrote a lot about things that I guess are in the same frame. It's about finding out what's good for you and what isn't. What you need in life and what you don't. About watching yourself from a different perspective. I would say "Worn Out" is a great example of perspective, where you find yourself looking back at stuff that has been tearing you down, but you've come out stronger and wiser than before. I just felt that I had to get that off my chest.
The motivation behind writing lyrics varies a lot. It can be anything from the society to a line in a movie, even though the song might not end up being about the thing that pushed my buttons in the first place.
The world seems to be in a shitty state these days. How do you feel about things like the financial crisis, unemployment, general instability in many people lives?
Obviously it's not a good thing at all and it's a shame what happens in this world. It's too bad there's more than one way people can feel about this.
Your country is seen as economically stable and generally friendly place to live. How does it all look like from the Swedish perspective?
I guess every country looks nice on a post card. I immediately think about a party called the Sweden Democrats. Their view on immigrants is not the friendliest and they've certainly helped the face of Sweden turn uglier.
What are some of the shows you have played that really stick out in your mind?
For me there are three shows that comes to mind, and I think that the rest of the band agrees. First, the release show for The Mockracy was just awesome, unfortunately David wasn't drumming on this show because of injured shoulders. We hadn't done that many shows before that one, but at this one it was fantastic to see that people had given some of their time to learn our songs.
A few months before that, we played a festival in Linköping called Fat Fest. It was the first time we played outside of Örebro, and there were really cool bands playing there, such as Trapped Under Ice, Bane and Hårda Tider.
The third one that comes to mind we did not that long ago in Gävle. We went there with two other bands from from our town (Chain Reaction and Hårda Bud) and it was amazing. It's a floor stage so they compensated with stools that they kicked around the floor to "stage dive" from.
What other bands out of Sweden you support these days?
There are several great bands from our town, such as Dead Reprise, Chain Reaction, Hårda Bud and Chastise. Then from all around Sweden we've got Lesra, Angers Curse, Bitter Taste of Life, Guilty, Lose the Life and Agent Attitude. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though.
After the EP is out, what’s next for Elapse?
To play as much as possible, basically. We've been hearing a lot of bands talk about this thing called "Euro tour", and it feels like we need to look into that.
New 'Last Man Standing' 7" by Watch Your Back
Truth In Needles - Against The Grain
Againt The Grain, new TIN's video off of the 2011 album "Turning Gray Black"
New Mercyless album out on Cruzade Records
Reaper signs Malfunction, Tolerate and Born Annoying
