SPOTLIGHT: Almeida - Social Media Circus

I'll admit to my shame that I've not checked out Almeida before, even though we've shared the same bill. I don't know why I never got around to it as I've seen them on the same bills as Darko and others of my favourites lists for a while and knew something of them being a band I'd probably enjoy. I guess you can just only check out so many new bands at a time. Anyway I feel guilty now and will be making a hell of a bigger effort to catch them in future, the reason is that my first ever taste of Almeida was this EP.

I feel like it gives me a nice perspective not having listened to anything by them before, yet holding them up to the Melodic Hardcore "Do I like it" template that I have done with their peers. It's not exactly going to be fair as it's fairly well pointed out that Almeida are "Progressive Thrash" and not Melodic Hardcore. What's the difference? well lets get into it:

This EP opens with the standard metal riff opening that I earliest remember MUTE doing in The Raven and thats become a fairly major staple in the bands I like to listen to. This time though it's goddamned hardcore, like way more than anything else I've heard. This opening really sets up everything you can come to expect from the EP and is actually a stroke of genius by the band. From the metal turned up to eleven opening gambit which then switches to a major key double time guitar solo and into alternate death metal growls and more standard skate punk vocals, you will have decided within twenty seconds of listening to this whether you'll like the record. Also there is a cough and you'll miss it Father Ted reference. Good stuff.

The album then settles into it's skate punk/melodic hardcore stylings, albeit with an intensity that is up at the upper limits of the genre, breaking more into flat out thrash metal more than any band I've come across before. You start to feel like you've got a handle on things and the tunes stream through at a blistering pace, fast and tight and technical all throughout. Which is a real hallmark of the top end of quality UK bands playing anything comparable.

Then "A Book Of Endless Pages" happens and oh fuck, you'd better be goddamned ready. The song is FIERCE like nothing I've known in a while. It's not exactly a total change in style but the really thrashy shit you've heard up until now is just an easy warm up for this. This song is intensity bottled and is an experience all of itself. The only thing I can liken it to is the song "Such the Fool" by Sikth, It's all deep rumbling growls and blast beasts and heavy as a tank riffs.
You'd be forgiven for being exhausted by the time it's over but you're not quite finished yet, Creed comes up as the ender and doesn't dare let up the pace and fun until you could swear that you've run a marathon.

In conclusion Almeida are far more aggressive and close to Metal than anything else I would class in a similar category and they may not be your cup of tea. To those of you that feel this way, know that you're wrong and probably a bad person. Luckily thanks to an opening intro so packed with personality it registered it's own netflix account, you'll be able to make your mind up pretty quickly about whether you're in camp right or not. To those that like the band or similar acts you'll find a deeply well crafted intense ride that will bring you back over and over as you piece together the narrative that runs throughout.

p.s. I apologise for not focusing one the words and instead just letting the vocal melody sweep me along because if I had paid attention I could probably say this with more clarity but I'm fairly certain this is a concept album, since from the opening all the way to the riffs in Creed there is a circus theme running throughout the music. Hopefully someone who actually hears the words can confirm this for me.

SPOTLIGHT: Jesus Hooligan - Touch Pure Passion

A while ago I reviewed an EP from 'Norse gods with drum sticks' ensemble Jesus Hooligan. That was a musical experience I'm never likely to forget, something so intense and against the grain that I quite happily threw myself into a feast of Touch Pure Passion - the bands (quite) new album. Admittedly I found it difficult to pull myself away from the brand new PMX EP, but like them good old pringles I popped and then couldn't stop!!

Now I've talked about these guys before, so I'll dispense with the overlong description and instead go for something a little lighter on the pallet for the TL;DR crowd.
Jesus Hooligan is the kind of music that absolutely defies any modern genre convention and instead opts to completely re write the book on everything we've come to expect from music. Part Tribal beatdown, part blues, part Danzig, part sea shanty, part rock opera, part Clash. They are at once no music that's come before and the building blocks of everything you've ever listened to. It's hard to imagine what I'm talking about until you hear it for yourself and I very much suggest you do.

Anyways on to the album. Now As I mentioned I have previous experience with the JH crowd. The "Feel" EP being a journey into guttural roaring to the sound of the earth grinding on it's axel which was both pleasing to take and utterly unforgettable. It's was quite the expedition and I fully expected this to be no different. What I found though was a slightly different kettle of fish. There's more in here that we could would consider popular music. Songs such as the opening Death Of Me and I Don't Wanna See That Woman No More are pretty close to being straight up rock songs, with some old school rock and roll slide guitar in there and a structure we would all recognise. This is the lighter side of JH and would be good starters for introducing the band to friends. Then there are tunes that left me literally short of breath listening to them, and I'm sat at a desk. Songs like Woman Girl and Girl are an assault on the senses with those tribal drums crashing and the didjeridoo to a pace that must be a real spectacle to witness live.

There is an ever prevalent sense of humour I love flowing through here too. It's smutty as hell but never disrespectful, crude but not at the expense of others and shocking but only to the prudish and uptight. In essence something anyone can get behind and enjoy. Lyrics like "When you're in my bed doing things with your head" are positioned directly next to an almost instrumental drum beatdown which proclaims " For I Will Love Her" over and over with a beautifully haunting turn of Mr Hooligans real life wife singing the reprise back to him. This sense of inclusiveness is an ethos the Hooligan tribe seem to hold very dear in their hearts and it comes across as endearing for a band of fearsome dudes pounding on the foundations of the world!! You're only likely to be truly offended by what they say if you do indeed have the body shape of a Wheatabix!

All in all this is something that is worth checking out if only for the fact  that you've probably never heard the like before or will after. Personally the fun in this recording, that sounds like they just played so loudly next to a record that the music was imprinted through sheer force of will, is a delight to behold and now I'm off to play Here In My Bed to my wife now to watch her knees go weak.

SPOTLIGHT: PMX - Dark Days

Just go and listen. I'll wait......

I know right? 

Melodic Hardcore is my bag. It's the only thing really in my music collection and my collection of UK bands that create this style of music are now far reaching and all close to my heart. So what's so special about PMX that puts this latest release above heavyweight contenders in the field such as Darko,  The Human Project and the many others I love with reckless abandon?

Well it has all the hallmark calling cards I come to expect from a HM record, the metalish riffs, the blistering speed of the drums, the level of technicality I can only stare at and weep as I wish I could be so talented. They're all here in spades and all with a tightness and polish that would make a grown man blush. To call PMX talented is to do them a disservice. These are musicians for which the music they create is no less a part of their body than their lungs or heart.

These things are all true and elevate PMX up to the lofty heights which I hold the others at the top of the MH spectrum, but there's more here which as personal preference elevates them to the very top of the bunch, and that's the pop aspect. As you can guess I love me some pop punk and the rest of the recipe that creates this sublime meal that is PMX is the beautiful vocals and 90s pop punk elements that glue the MH elements together. Think NUFAN circa "The Feel good record of the year", think Jimmy Eat World circa "Bleed American", think Ataris, Slick Shoes, Strung Out and Useless ID and you're on the right track. The pop here is a way of describing an accessibility to this record that I think other bands do away with or don't care so much about. This is the sort of record I'd play to my wife and she would enjoy, without a preexisting affiliation with punk rock. This makes this record a great gateway for anyone trying to convince people of Melodic Hardcores superiority or to entice someone who may have shunned it previously because bands like Forus and A Wilhelm Scream were just too much to handle straight off the bat.

Song wise I couldn't possibly pick a favourite although title tune Dark Days sets itself apart as something truly special. An almost 7 minute rock epic that left me genuinely sad that it had finished and desperate to get to it again via the rest of the tracks. It's something incredible to feel moved by a piece of music so epic in nature and construction and it makes me happy to have found it in the first place and able to hopefully share it with you all.

In conclusion if you were saving yourself to buy one single record all of this year well then you're lucky because it's right here and it's everything you could have possibly dreamed of. A roaring, soaring, heartbeat skipping, pulse pounding beautifully crafted and executed journey which I felt nothing but gratitude for being allowed to take. It's a masterpiece of whatever style of music you'd like to attribute it to and something that no-one should miss out on.

DANS SOAP BOX - Online Bullying

I'm adding a new feature to my blog, and that's a nicer way of saying that I want to have a place to have a long rant about something non music related without starting a brand new blog. In this series I will be tackling heady things such as stuff I feel needs to be addressed to a large audience. why not just write a long winded and bloated moany facebook post you may ask. To that I say yes, and let's continue regardless.

Todays soapbox is something I have become increasingly aware of and that's online bullying and harassment. That sounds kind of harsh when i say it like that but let me give you a few examples and you may find that you have indeed been party to it too. There was the girl who did the hunting, remember her, Ricky Gervais (more on him later) tormented her for a while and so did all his fans and most of the international press for a week or so, then there was that advert that used a well heard of phrase for getting in shape and looking attractive to the opposite sex while in swimwear who were the ire of all feminists for again, about a week. Let's not forget (did you already forget?) about the scientist who said something stupid and again was rocked by a landslide of abuse for a little while, lost his job too over that one. I could continue on for a while in this fashion and there are undoubtedly stories which are more relevant to you that I missed but you get the point.

The point here being that these people were mercilessly tormented by enormous amounts of people for a period of time and then all of a sudden were forgotten about as the world moved on to the next victim. Yes each one of these people did/said something that we don't agree with but MY GOD!! do they really deserve the anger of the planet for their "crimes"? Such a public throwing of shit at individuals hasn't been seen we put people in stocks, and that is truly what it feels like to me. We put these people up for public flogging for a length of time while we hurl detritus at them and we move on about our daily business, feeling like we've had a moral victory over those "bad" people. It's the same reason we watch Jeremy Kyle, except with wider audience participation. Well done human race, we've regressed  to the 1800s for our forms of punishment.

I'll look back at Ricky Gervais now. We like to feel like he's a crusader for animal rights. The people he singles out being the scum of the human race. When he tells us to attack we do, taking on these depraved humans and teaching a lesson about having an online presence they'll never forget.
But hang on, has Ricky Gervais shown us all his campaign to ban trophy hunting? Has he tried to use his giant influence to change gun laws? Has he used his considerable position of privilege as a straight white male millionaire to bully the tour companies that allow this so far perfectly legal thing to happen? No he has not. Or if he has it certainly flew under the radar. Instead what we have is a man with an angry army close to 10 million strong (on twitter alone) attacking individuals. That's like him singling out a junky on a street corner, telling everyone in London to kick them in the face and then telling the world he's totally fighting the war on drugs.

As for these people YES they do things that we find terrible, but really think of the consequences, do they deserve it? Let's put that into perspective. You eat chicken sandwiches right (Vegans go pat yourselves on the back for this analogy)? You probably have since you were old enough to eat a sandwich, I know my daughter does. Now what about the disgusting way poultry are treated in battery farms in the UK and abroad? I mean millions of chickens slaughtered (that's a strong word isn't it) every day so that there's enough chicken to go in your sandwich.
Now two things generally occur to you at this point. 1 - it's not your goddamned fault your tasty chicken sandwich had to be made from a terrified bird watching thousands of it kinsmen die as it too was dragged screaming to it's death. 2 - I don't fucking care because eating chicken sandwiches is such an integral part of life I couldn't imagine not doing it.
Now imagine that one day 10 MILLION people tell you that you're a monster for all that dead bird you're cramming in your mouth, not just that you're a monster but that they'll fucking kill you. Some of these people will actively try to find you. Your face is then plastered over the news, even though everyone else you know and an entire industry is built around making chicken sandwiches, you're the only one feeling the burn. Your employer undoubtedly sees your face on every site they look through and fires you, even though they themselves probably eat chicken sandwiches but they don't want to be seen as condoning such "terrible" actions.

And then it stops. The millions forget your name and decide that someone else who told a despicable joke about horses having long faces (don't cause body dysmorphia in horses) is the new evil and chases him. You're left broken and terrified and possibly financially ruined by a rampaging mob that can't even remember what colour hair you have now.
This is what we do weekly now. We jump on the scorn wagon, pile our hate onto people who are by all accounts just like us but raised with a different moral code and then dump them in favour of women holding coke can between their tits for no reason at all.

If it was you standing in the streets and someone was locked naked in the stocks would you throw a stone at their face along with the crowd? Can honestly say that you haven't in your life done something that couldn't warrant a similar tirade from people? If you are not fighting directly at the cause of something (say for example you're condemning a dentist for killing a lion but you're not vegan and fighting against international hunting laws) then you are the bully and it's time to stop.

SPOTLIGHT: Demon Smiles - Amped

You may well be thinking how could somebody who is best friends with the band and also an ex member and also self styled number one fan possibly review a record by that band. To that I say HA! and BAH! and afterwards in a more wordy retort I would say that surely someone who is as intimately tied to the band without actually being in the current line-up is in fact best placed to review such a thing. We already know I like it, I only review stuff on here that I like. I have more official means of doing a totally objective review that don't live here. What I'm gonna talk about  instead is just how good the album is and what makes it the greatest Demon Smiles record to grace our ears so far.

Now I don't know where you were on February 3rd 2013 but I was sat in a dark room listening to a brand new demo by Demon Smiles. It was raw as fuck and badly recorded and rough around every edge but by God was it cool and fun and full of pinache. Since that moment I've been there to watch the ebbs and flows of the band and when things hit a low point this time last year I stepped into guitarist duties for a few brilliant months whilst they pieced back together what had fractured. Last August whilst playing with Authority Zero I handed the guitar reigns over to newcomer Jazz, a sexy beast of a man with a beard that could impregnate a hundred virgins. Then the band, whilst keeping up their relentess touring schedule, knocked AMPED out.

This new album is many things to the band. It's a heartfelt display of sadness over the end of how things were, it's a positive affirmation of all the ideals the band holds dear, it's flexing of confident muscles showing the talent delivered week in and week out in stunning live shows but more than anything else it's all the potential the band has ever shown, distilled and magnified beyond measure. Quality wise in comparison to previous efforts it is as a hawk is to the mouse it is hunting. Superior in every facet. Even returning songs are infinitely better with almost the entire vocal focus of these going to Cat, who's beautiful, powerful vocals can shine so much more when not being interceded with tuneless growls. The drumming on display here is far and beyond anything heard before, rhythms in the brand new songs being faster and more technical than ever heard on record before. The pace of this thing is nothing short of break neck, apart from the odd dub reggae breakdown. Jazz the gorgeous new kid also shines through, keeping things all tied together with a skill and precision that was sorely lacking before.

Stand out tracks on here are hard to pin down to a one or two. Penny For The Wise is already an anthem for of all of us that have had to deal with band members going south. Based on a true story there are cheeky references to other bands and other things that warrant multiple repeat listens. Impropagandhi lets us know what the new Demon Smiles is all about, lightning fast with cleaner more precise guitar work than any older fans will be used to. Then there's Fuck You, which is the band personality, built into the most fun 2 minutes and 32 seconds you can have. I've mentioned improvements in the older songs so next up is my personal favourite We Are The Weirdos. This song is an affirmation of all the band cares most for whilst decrying those would ruin it for them, the bit where it goes "I'm in love with a dead generation, kept alive in my soul" is just too cool to handle. Enemy is the skatepunk-est song out of everything on display and also a close contender for favourite with the single fastest drumming anywhere in the DS back catalog.
Keys is a tune for every victim of street harassment to scream in the face of the next prick to attempt to force themselves on someone and become aggressive in denial. I may be a dude, but having to come home and hear stories from my wife of the idiots that try to woo her with such tactics as forcing her to take their number or calling her a bitch because she refused drinks I feel like this resonates with me the most out of all the others.

So in conclusion (for the TL;DR crowd) you could throw away everything that came before and not blink, this is the real deal, the peak (so far) of what the band is capable of and essential for your collection if you are in anyway into skatepunk.

SPOTLIGHT: On A Hiding To Nothing - Self Titled EP

ok ok ok ok, So I only ever seem to write nice things about bands I like. But that's because I only write reviews for bands I like to listen to so shut your traps.
On A Hiding To Nothing first graced my earholes around February last year and you can see how much I love them playing live here.
As much as I loved them they didn't really have anything to listen to outside of hyper energetic live shows. Just a few hastily recorded samplers on Bandcamp. Nothing that the band was happy to have put their overly long name to (OAHTN from here out).
Trouble with being in a DIY punk band is that Simon Cowells cheque book is not open to you and funding has to come from somewhere if you don't have a trust fund. These gents decided to offer up an indiegogo campaign to get things going at the tail end of last year and had a pretty succesful time gathering funds from unwitting chumps ( I pledged £20). Now we get to hear the fruits of their labours and I'm pretty happy to announce that it's flipping incredible:

So Sound wise it's obvious a lot of love and attention has been given to recording this and getting it to sound just right. This is no flash in the pan demo purely sampling a live show. This is a very nicely produced affair and sits comfortably alongside anything recorded with a giant budget that might exist in my music collection. This can be divisive to some punks who like a deliberately raw sound but being that you're reading a blog with "pop-punker" in the title you likely appreciate a meticulously crafted sound.

Like any really great set of songs, from any genre this thing is layered like an onion. If you just want some excellent riffage to skate to this has got you covered with catchy hooks and double time in all the right places. It passed the "is it fun to skate to down Regent Street" test with flying colours.
The vocal melodies are sweet enough to listen to without ever having paid attention to what's being said. If you want to dig a little deeper and start listening you'll find the OAHTN sense of humour. Ever present in their stage shows and definitely part of the bands personality there is a lot to laugh about in this set of songs as long as you a free thinking individual.
That last point leads me nicely to the last layer I cared to discover in my 30 or 40 listens, and that is a scathing look at Middle Britain and the ignorance and prejudice found in this green and pleasent land. From armchair pundits to tory daily mail religionists, if you are a narrow minded, uninformed, bigoted fool then this record stands squarely in your face, points a finger and says "it aint goddamned good enough".

There really is something for everyone here and those who pledged will be greatly pleased with how their money was put to use. A worthy debut in both quality and potential for a band brimming with both.

5 Reasons I'm not punk (according to the "punk handbook"): and also old.

Today is not a day for bands, unfortunately. It's also not a day for anything particularly music related. Instead I'm going to talk on a subject that count as one of the very few pet peeves I have and a few reasons why this annoys me so. The thing that got this all riled back up in my head was possibly the worst facebook post I have ever seen by a "punk" band. This whining, snivelling self pitying pile of badly written nonsense encapsulated everything wrong with the punk scene for me and I'd like to take a moment to say "do you know what, if that is what punk is then I'm truly glad I'm not. Here's five reasons I shouldn't call myself punk anymore:

1. I Give A Shit

It's almost the golden rule of punk rock isn't it? give no fucks. If you have a fuck to give then you aren't doing punk properly. Right? well do you know who else gives no fucks and only looks out for themselves? Big Brother Contestants. Jeremy Kyle. Katie Hopkins. Bank Managers. Simon Cowell.
I guess I don't want to be in those peoples clubs. I do give a fuck. I care that in doing the things I want to do that I don't detract from other peoples happiness. Am I a people pleaser? Well yes, that's the entire reason I sing in a band, I want people to enjoy what I'm doing. "But you can't worry about everybody all the time" I imagined you saying just now, that may well be true but I can give a little consideration to how people feel before I react to something. So this may be my age talking too, I'm well aware of that, but then again people that have stayed friends with me for a long time can heartily agree I was a prick when I was younger and am a much better person to be around now. So yeah, why not just spare a moment to think about the repercussions of your actions, or y'know, just keep being a tool.

2. Anything Politics

Man Fuck UKIP, and Britain First. Those guys are blights on the face of the earth as far as I'm concerned. The real issue I have with them though is that they (from what I have seen of life) really do represent the views of middle britain (I mean the average person, not like Birmingham or any specific location). That's what angers me. What I don't have is a view on policy reform, taxes, umm anything else that sounds like a political thing. I don't passionately hate the major parties for whatever things they've done and I guess that makes me a bad person in the eyes of the politically charged but hell that's just not me. I'm an escapist, I lose myself in books about fantasy worlds and in comics and role playing games and in playing music in my band. It's not that I don't care about politics, but if you want an example of what happens with a shift in power then look at the rubbish piling up in the streets because our champion left took control. Things will not necessarily be better with an upheaval and I'm too busy making sure my family are provided for to drop everything for a total revolution.

3. I am old

Old people always used to bang on about punk when I was a teenager. They would tell me I didn't know what good punk was and that the shitty 90s groups I was listening to weren't real punk. I would tell those stupid old men to go and fuck themselves. Punk was whatever the fuck I wanted it to be because it was mine, ours, and by that I meant it was a teenage thing that some stupid old jerk in a pub with a gammy knee that "used to be punk" could never ever understand because he was past it.
Well now the music of my youth is twenty years old and I generally don't like what teenagers listen to (unless it's what I listen to). Punk at it's core has always been a teenage rebellion that old people and the media labelled punk. Telling a kid that there act of rebellion isn't punk because it doesn't conform to genre rules is the absolute least "punk" thing in the world to do. I don't like what the kids are listening to these days, and that's ok.

4. I'm not offensive

This seems to be another staple of punk rock 101 that got a little skewed with time. When punk first burst onto daytime telly and top of the pops back in the day it was considered hugely offensive. Back when "dirty bloody rotter" was the height of bad language the punks were seen as pioneers of offense and somehow this turned into a rule where you have to be offensive no matter what to everyone you come across. I once played a show in Chichester (the punk rockest town in England) and this girl was stood at the front shouting abuse at me and spitting at me the whole time. When we finished she then tried to stick her tongue down my throat, clearly under the impression that since I was playing punk that all of her punky offensiveness would be a huge turn on for me. It was and we proceeded to have a forgettable evening but that's beside the point. There was no need for it and being offensive for offensive sake is just a stupid concept. Chav kids with their stupid slang and gang signs and appropriated black culture offend me today. So that just means the baton has been passed.


5. I don't like punk rock music that much.

I am a musician. I may not be a good musician but I am one. I play to the best of my abilities and I hope that when I perform in front of a crowd of people that they have a good time and want to see me do it again someday. I am especially in love with Melodic Hardcore these days like The Human Project and Darko, bands that blow me away with incredible musicianship and that clearly strive to be at the absolute top of the field. I don't really like just shouting into a mic whilst someone butchers three chords and a drummer barely plays a beat. That's what I hear a lot of the time when I listen to purist punk bands. I remember being played on a radio station a while ago. The song they played was Plus One which is an acoustic ballad dedicated to my daughter. the song before I think was about cunts and beer and beer cunts and cunt beers or something. I don't really know because I couldn't understand it. It's weird. The UK seems to be the only country still churning out bands like this. It all just reminds me of football chanting and is often a breeding ground for racism and sexism. I love a belting harmony. I love a screaming solo. I love super tight double time drums. I love light hearted and funny music. I guess I don't love punk.