2011: Things of the year

It's the end of the year (again) and everbody's doing it so I guess I will. I will go through some shit that musically sparked my attention this year. No lists, because those are hard, but just some shit on why I liked the shit that happened.

2011: Everything but a list.

The best band this year was definitely Banner Pilot. They probably weren't the best band but i've learned to appreciate them this year more than previously. The reissue of Resignation Day and primarily the new record Heart Beats Pacific did the trick I guess. When I heard Alchemy on the internets ahead of the release I was blown away. However, when I listened to the new record in its entirety for the first few times I wasn't. It was cool but not to my expectations.
Who the fuck was I kidding, though, once it hit me right, it hit me damn right. Album of the year, musically very versatile (they used drop D-tunings, what the hell?) though unambiguously punkrock, lyrically very recognizable on a lot of aspects. Love this band.

Nerf Herder is the other band I really got to appreciate and understand more this year. Together with singer Parry Gripp's solo project, Nerf Herder has to be the best musical outlet ever for anyone who's bored or feels useless. Parry's lyrics are hilarious as well as enlightening as well as grasping, and the music is just plain joyful mostly. Please do yourself a favour and check out every little thing you can find. Or visit me with your hard drive or something and I'll give you everything I have found. Which is pretty much.
Nerf Herder is pretty quite now, but Parry is still kicking out the jams and made some of the best songs of the year.

So I guess those are number 1, but I honestly can't make a hierarchious list of releases of 2011. But I'll tell you which ones appealed to me.
For obvious reasons, Mixtapes put out a bunch of good stuff. They did the Castle Songs thingy early on which was fun, then the Hope Is For People 7" which was slap-in-the-face good. I really like their pop punk sensibility and the fact that they "are anti-social and hate everybody". I can really relate. They also put out a reissue of Maps, backed with the all-electric Companions EP, accompanied with the all-acoustic How To Throw A Successful Party EP. And their first real real full length is about to be recorded, so I'm super stoked about this.

Dead Ringer released a 7" called Enjoy The Ride, and damn it if I didn't enjoy the ride. Probably the best EP this year... If it wasn't for the magificent Fake Boys who put out Nice Knowing You. Fucking awesome. I remember the first time hearing this and being all "wuh teh ef?" and then listening to it again and again and 'getting it'. This is Fake Boys pur sang. Pop punk is fucking dead, fact proven by the Fake Boys. I mean, it spins at 33 rpm, that's saying something, does it? The songs are so god damn piercing. Gives me goosebumps.
Related quote of the year (by the Fake Boys):

thanks to everyone who cares, everyone else can suck shit

And let's not forget Not On Tour, who released a new EP (N.O.T. On Tour, really clever). Bitching new songs. It's weird they're called Not On Tour (actually it's not weird, but anyway) because they are at their best when they are on tour. I saw 'em 1 and a half times this summer and it was goooooood. I also promise that was the last dumb joke about their bandname I made. Period.

Other awesome shows this summer were Touché Amoré and Death is Not Glamourous (and to a lesser extent This Routine Is Hell and La Dispute) at Kaffee Aloys, both bands have new records out that belong the the top X of this year. Touché Amoré's has had so many plays I'm almost sick of it. Epic, epic record. Death Is Not Glamourous was probably the best hardcore act I saw live this year. Their new EP is just as amazing as their other releases. Definite band to check out if you haven't already.
Let's see... Lemuria/Cheap Girls was a fun show, where I got to know Cheap Girls which was probably the best thing that night did for me. Algernon Cadwalladder/Punch/1994! in Berchem was an awesome show. Really weird line-up but hella cool. Oh, and definitely Soul Control/Ritual. Both class hardcore bands. New Soul Control EP is bitchin', new Ritual record is also bitchin'. Bitchin' means very good!
August ended with Hot Water Music and Make Do And Mend who are both amazing, amazing bands (Hot Water Music being one of my absolute favourites). Similarly I saw the Get Up Kids a couple weeks later (it's similar because they're also a favourite band of mine). Oh, and Fountains Of Wayne also a few weeks after that. Damn, how cool were Fountains Of Wayne? I'm still stoked I was at that show. I still feel bad for everyone who wasn't at that show. They must have had a lousy time.

Summer only ended when I saw the motherfucking Wellingtons, though. First in Brescia, then in Villadossolla. The shows were tight as fuck but as for audience and reaction pretty dull. Should've played in Belgium, damnit. Seriously though, that musical trip was awesome, I love the Wellingtons and their new album (geez, every god damn band has had a new album this year) is off-the-hook great. In Transit belongs in everyone's top 10 lists this year.
Another gem of power pop punk is The Windowsill's debut. Don't fucking miss out on Skies Are Turning Blue 2.0. And don't forget the new projects of 1) former Leftovers-dude Kurt Baker and 2) former Guts-dude Geoff Useless: 1) Kurt Baker Music and 2) The Connection. Start dancing to 1) Rocking For A Living and 2) Stop Talking/New England's Newest Hitmakers.

I've actually gone too far already. Most years start in January (in fact, I think all of 'em do). You know what happened in January? Jackshit. I have to study in January. BUT! But! In January 2011, I internationalised This Ain't Noise and changed the language to English after a long and thorough poll (one guy said I should probably do it in English). AND LOOK AT THE SUCCES STORY NOW, right? (Wrong, actually)
Februari was awesome because I was working hard on the first issue of my paper fanzine at the time. Which, actually, I do consider a succes story. Fact: #1 has sold out. Fact: #2 has sold out. Fact: There's still #3's left. Fact: #4 just came out a week ago! BUY IT!
Also I've been buying way more 'zines since I started making one. They're all better than mine. In 2011 I picked up and really liked: Jerk Store (!), Ironhide, The Swaggerlo Times, Eraser, Sweet Chaos, ...

Since I can't make a coherent overview anyway, I wanna say something about some other records that were purely awesome. First and foremost, can you imagine how stoked I was to hear a new Copyrights album after X years? Damn I was excited! Could you imagine how glad I was when it turned out to be one of the of 2011? Could you guess how many times I hit the repeat button? (Actually just once... for an entire week!) Best album in any genre. Even Burzum thinks North Sentinel Island is great! (Not based on true facts.)
The second pop punk gem was definitely House Boat's The Thorns Of Life. An album as fun as a videogame and as depressing as your ex-girlfriend.

On the gruffier side of the pop punk we have releases such as Red City Radio's The Dangers Of Standing Still. This band, by the way, co-headlined the third Summer In October Fest with Wimpy Rutherford. A fest that I will remember forever for being the best weekend ever this year and also of the years before it existed (so 3 years ago and before). It featured the Crackups CD release of Animals On Acid, which is not their debut but I think they wish it was. 1000 times better than the previous album. Also they get airplay, I think. At least, I've heard 'em once on Studio Brussel.
That weekend another famous Kempen band released their 3rd record. The Priceduifkes came on the props (dutchism!) with their longest album to date, Can't Lose. Contender for one of the best records of the year as well, and not just nationally. They will tour Europe in 2012 with Direct Hit! (FUCK YOU! GET Domesplitter in your record collection!), and that's super cool and rightful.
Another cool gruff punk record is The Slow Death's Born Ugly Got Worse. I saw them on a show with The Arteries and Mikey Erg, and I really only needed to see Mikey Erg, both both other bands kicked ass. The Slow Death is slightly more accesible than The Arteries I guess, but they're both amazing. New Arteries record is called Dead Sea, check that out. Mikey Erg has a heart-shaped single out with 2 great songs on it. He plays songs for everyone. He's great. The show was amazingly stunning.

I got an awesome Mikey Erg shirt at that show, featuring the classic Project X lyric "as hard as the booze that you swill down your throath". Other cool merch items I've acquired are a Not On Tour sweater, Give Up The Ghost "We're Down..." shirt, PJ Bond "make your own peej" shirt, Parry Gripp "Wiener Dog..." shirt, Tattle Tales "Pop Sounds" shirt and a Mixtapes "Ohio" shirt. Yay!

Some other (new) national bands I can think of now are definitely de Tantras and 15 Minute Powernap, they both have great tunes, they're great dudes and are really coming up in the scene. Related to 15 Minute Powernap, also F.O.D. and A Hollow Statement are bands to look out for. The F.O.D. EP slays, as mentioned earlier this month. Also keep an eye out for the Dead 70s Show, they recorded some jams that you'll probably like!
Break Of Day released a new album which blew me away. The Octopussys made a record as well, but I have to say that I still still still need to buy it as I haven't listened to it entirely. I'm super late on that boat, but super curious though.
State Of Mine called it quits at the insane Mute show, but meanwhile Face The Fax is hitting new highs. They share a drummer with A Strength Within, who are really taking it back. Whatever that is. They're taking it. They've stepped up their game with Still Searching, 4 new songs after 2 years of searching.
Off The Charts released a great demo tape, Empty Hearts, but hardly play any song off of it anymore. They're probably my favourite Belgian band right now. Seen them numerous times, had a lot of fun and they're super great guys. They opened the Summer In October Fest I just talked about, by the way.

The Dutch Rudders also made their march this year, for example by opening the great Crossbone Fest. I can't tell you how awesome Crossbone Fest was because 1) I honestly can't tell, it's a well-kept secret, 2) I was pretty damn drunk, 3) I lack the vocabulary to describe it and 4) it's been a while. Anyway, Mothersmoking Chixdiggit! headlined the thing and they made every band that has ever done a live show (so basically every band) look like fools. One of the best shows OF MY LIFE. Related stuff: they have a new EP, Safeways Here We Come, which puts all other EPs made by bands to shame. So. Damn. Good.
Also at Crossbone: Rebuild. They should have had their demos ready by then (March-April) but sadly they've been postponed endlessly and they only got the stuff assembled on tape a few weeks back and on CD in the next couple of week. Singer Gijs also does an indie project called Owls In Daylight with 2 other peepz.

Talking 'bout the soft stuff, I went to 2 shows featuring PJ Bond and Greg Laraigne. I really loved those shows, those people, and the fun I had. They both have releases out now on Shield Recordings, PJ's is a live record and Greg's is called Story Tellers, True Believers. Greg's not really perfect with his English accent but that's what I like so much about his songs. They're both really genuine people.

In the melodic punkrock section I have to mention... loads of records! Geez, I wonder if anyone will ever read this. This ain't no year's end list. This is a god damn last will & testament. Anyway, you NEED to check out Tenement's full length entitled Napalm Dream, it'll be one of the best musics you'll hear in a while. In a similar fashion, Joyce Manor's self-titled and Hold Tight's Call The Zoo/Can't Take This Away. Really strong records from bands who are not doing the exact same thing everybody does but actually try to make it a little more interesting. Same for What Keeps You Breathing by the Living Daylights. I mean, that' top-notch punk rock, man. Oh, and Crucial Dudes' 61 Penn. Definitely, super good stuff.

Man, I haven't even said anything about seeing the Descendents at Groezrock. I saw the Descendents at Groezrock, guys!! Also, Groezrock was awesome, I was really happy to see Dear Landlord and Teenage Bottlerocket once again and had some of the most fun I've ever had. Those bands managed to pull off the bigger stages pretty well.
I didn't really discover anything special by checking out bands at Groezrock, mostly because I didn't so much check bands out, but I've been to a lot of shows and I've been surprised quite a few times. Most notably I remember Daylight in Ghent, Smartbomb in Leuven and the Gamits in Hasselt.

Songs of the year were probably End Of A Year's I Heard Crime Gets You Off, The Priceduifkes' I.K.A.W./138, Banner Pilot's Intervention, Dead Ringer's That Veronica Vaughn..., Crucial Dudes' Boom, Roasted, ...

The best songs of ever are still Hey Jealousy by the Gin Blossoms, Surfin' Bird by the Trashmen and any song by the Ramones, but also We Killed It by Give Up The Ghost, Pretty Pathetic by the Smoking Popes and the Dopamines' Car Trouble.

I'm not even going into all the little things like Ryan Mixtapes' Wooky Stax and Gooningtons projects, or how much I've enjoyed Very Emergency by the Promise Ring or how I've only today started to listen to Get Bent when obviously I missed that boat and how good Tigers Jaw is or how happy I am For Science is back together (even if I'm not sure they'll play more than 1 show) or the new Grown Ups EP which is really good.
And just today, Like Bats throws their new record our way. It's called Midwest Nothing and it is great. Like Bats is a pretty underrated band.

Major things I missed out on are The Fest 10 and the Monster Zero Mash. Also some other cool shows but those were the most painfullest. I'll miss out on the Give Up The Ghost's reunion shows and the Dopamines' 5 year anniversary New Year's Eve.

I'm gonna stop name-dropping now. It's been one hell of a busy year. I think the above basically sums it up. A whole year of music in 2499 words. Oh, geez, the funny thing is that I have a paper due for Spanish literature that needs to be at least 2500 words. I wish I studied musicology, so I could just hand in this blogpost as a paper.
It'd be a pretty lousy paper anyway. I think I've created the anti-list.
I hope, if you managed to read it all the way till down here, you enjoyed reading it and got a clue about what I liked this year and what you would perhaps like. Someone please pat me on the back.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Thanks everybody for a great 2011. I've made tons of friend in the punkrock/hardcore scene this year, some more casually than other but I'm really excited about having met so many people. I'm actually quite the shy type, so this is a huge deal for me to talk to "strangers" at shows.

ALSO: Please buy my zines. #3 (Parry Gripp, Hot Water Music, Not On Tour, Make Do And Mend) and #4 (PJ Bond/Greg Laraigne, Banner Pilot, Broadway Calls/Swellers, Priceduifkes/Octopussys) are still available!

NEW ZINE WHOA OH OH

Zine #4 is out and about! 50 cents, 20 A5 pages, same as always!

Includes:
- interviews with PJ Bond+Greg Laraigne, Banner Pilot, End Of A Year Self Defense Family, Priceduifkes+Octopussys, Broadway Calls+Swellers
- record reviews
- downloadable mix

- stuff to check out

#3 is also still available!

Thanks!

Music sucks.

 Hey I thought I'd let you know real quick what I think about Revolver's Song of the year top 5.
http://www.revolvermag.com/news/poll-results-find-out-whom-you-voted-to-win-song-of-the-year.html

Falling in Reverse - The Drug In Me Is You
Oh God. What a horrible attempt at writing a psuedo-psuedo-metal song. Made me vomit a bit.

Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive
What? Same shit, different name. Even worse I think. It's like 6:45 long. I'm not gonna listen all of it. 1:42 and I'm turning it off.

Asking Alexandria - Not The American Average
Oh. I thought this was way worse. Still sucks for about 95% though. Why can't they decide on clean vocals or screaming? Get a clue. Also super long so I'm turning it off. 2:49, the breakdown's just starting. Fuck this.

Black Veil Brides - The Legacy
Definitely silliest band of all. Pretty bad as well. Seriously, I can't listen listen to this. Switching at 1:39.

Alesana - Circly VII: Sins Of The Lion
Well, okay. This sounds like a song. Still a lot of things that are making this sound really bad.

Numero 4!

FRIDAY NIGHT is punk rock night. Every night is punk rock night. HOORAY!

There was like al lot of bands confirmed and cancelled and confirmed and cancelled so it ended up probably better that it was supposed to.

Broadway Calls are an amazing band. They play awesome pop punk with some influences of other things. Hell, I don't know shit. They play great songs and with a lot of commitment. The stage presence was top nothc and they have high standards in their live shows. The new songs sounded awesome and they played a lot of songs, from the first album as well.

Talking about "as well", the (a) Swellers were the next band and they are great but not really my thing. Didn't totally convince me. I danced to one song which was a fun time. Other than that good show but I was interested in my newly-found magazine about puberty and genitalia.

I've interviewed various persons about their interest in (female) genitalia that evening, read about it in zine #4, coming out this week hopefully!

Fuzzy Old Dudes?

Thanks to Lode of 15 Minute Powernap I've become acquainted with his other band, F.O.D. I have no clue what it stands for. But they're cool, and he asked for a review. He didn't really need to ask as I would've probably done it anyway. But since I'm super lazy lately it's probably better he did cause it would've taken a while otherwise. Here it goes...

F.O.D. - Dance To This!
2011, Thanks But no Thanks Records

1. Tiny
2. Same Difference
3. Losing Grip
4. Gwendolyn
5. Crappy Little Dumb Band
6. Spookie
7. Carry On


Is this a demand? A wish? Or rather a suggestion? My guess is that it's none of these, it's just a prediction. Because you probably will dance to this.
F.O.D. is a fairly upcoming band who have released their EP in the first weekend of December. It has 7 songs on it, so it's a packed EP already. We can just guess what  to expect next and when to expect it. 'nyway, these guys have their punk rock degrees alright. The mascotte on the cover is an oldschool teenage punk kid, screaming on the front, air guitaring on the flip page and blatantly passed out on the back (cause unknown - probably danced too hard).
Enough about the irrelevant shit, this is all about the music. First impression: really catchy, heartfelt. Immediately I'm thinking Lagwagon. Not a bad reference, of course. Everything sounds good, rhythm section is tight (some great bass lines and drum fills on there!) and the melodies are absolutely indispensable. What I like about it that they've really thought their shit through. In terms of songwriting, I'm not getting bored. I mean there are no real superfluous bits and it has a drive that basically keeps going til the end (Spookie is the only song kinda holding back its full potential, I guess).
Alongside these really great punkrocktunes, the vocals and lyrics are doing good. I love the fluency (on its own and with the music) and the thin line between a clean singing and a punk rock raspyness/throatyness. Lyrically there's a lot of girls involved, so that's a plus. Also lots of great concepts, like Crappy Little Dumb Band, and a few ideas I probably don't fully 'get'. No problem, though.
In general, this EP is a danceable and repeatable disc of hopeful songs swinging between the mid-tempo and the fast-paced stuff. Comparable with a lot of stuff Fat Wreck and Epitaph put out in the nineties. Id est great stuff.

It might turn into something you don't really like.
But even for the slightest chance you're dancing to this.

Back home

Hey, you know what? This week I saw a band I've known and liked since I was 13/14 years old for the first time live on stage.

I pretty accurately remember me and my brother hanging in our house listening to music and my brother telling me to check out this one song. It was Back Home by "some obscure" band called Yellowcard. He got it from LimeWire (remember LimeWire?), I don't know how though. I was listening to Busted, Avril Lavigne, Blink-182, Fountains Of Wayne, ... so Yellowcard fitted in pretty damn good.
I immediately got hooked to Back Home, it being at the time one of the best songs I had ever heard. Long story short: I checked out Ocean Avenue, which is awesome, my brother ordered One For The Kids from the internet (which at that time was totally unusual) and I found The Underdog EP at the local record store. Whoo!

Now skip about 6/7 years to 2011. I'm a 20-year old linguistics student, generally stoked on life but you know... I still listen to punk rock, which is something Yellowcard played a huge role in (together with Blink and the Offfspring). I go to shows regularly but Yellowcard have never come to Europe. They were to come at Pukkelpop (which I didn't attend) but that plan got blown away (pun intended). So Tuesday the 13th of December, 2011, Yeloowcard performed its first show on Belgium ground. And I was there to see them. Which was cool, both for the sake of it and for their show.

The line-up was pretty crazy actually. The Wonder Years started the evening and I arrived at the venue about half-way through their set. I'm fairly unfamiliar with them, but they're a cool band. I'm really liking this song right now. Anyway, I was surprised to see, like, 3 guitar players cause that's a lot. But their music is packed with energy and punch. They play this kind of "easycore" punk rock that can either go wrong (like I saw with Transit last Friday) or right (I had the impression The Wonder Years were way further in this game). It's supposed to be catchy and primarily.. well, yeah punchy. The part of the set I saw was certainly alright. It wasn't mind-blowing or anything, but it was up my league. Good job, guys!

Next up was - wait, what? - Defeater! Wow, quite the odd combo. But I don't care, I like almost everything in music as long as it has a beat and is in tune (so everything excluding dubstep I guess). Defeater fucking hit the spot. 5th time in Bels, my second time of seeing them. Although they're not the kind of band to play huge stages and have a diustance between band and audience they slayed. They absolutely killed it. One of the best shows I've seen these past few months. They reminded me of a more emotional and less chaotic version of the Dillinger Escape Plan. I know that doesn't make much sense but I think you're used to me not making sense, right? Either way, performance was stellar, they are amazing artists and they know how to push the buttons.

Saves The Day was next. As evidence that I like everything, I thought this show was super fun! I've heard many complaining and I can see why I think, but I was into it, I think they played a decent set. Apparently many people can't stand the singer's voice (anymore), cause it's hella nasal and high-pitched, but I dug it. I like nasal, high-pitched vocals. I like catchy pop (punk) melodies. I liked the set. They played 4 songs I knew I think (off of Stay What You Are/Through Being Cool) but I like most of the newer songs as well (some songs were pretty lousy though). They finished the set with At Your Funeral (of course) and that was very cool.
Saw the bass player after the show and we talked about Belgian beers and how good they are. They are really good. He was a nice good. I thought he looked like Rise Against's singer, but he didn't think so.

Then, finally, I was about to see Yellowcard. Actually, same scenario as with Saves The Day, I don't know any of their newer songs (post-Ocean Avenue). But damn did they put on a solid show. Singer was ill, but that didn't bother in the least. They played lots of great songs, an acoustic one which wasn't really necessary for me. I was kinda upfront and I almost felt like being at a festival. Con: not a punk rock show. Pro: lotsa girls! I dances, sang along to the couple songs I knew and had a lot of fun because flippin' Yellowcard was playing. That was good enough!

Defend pop punk

Wow. Busy weekend. It all started on Friday with a show in HJ Kavka, Antwerp. Great show I guess.
Went to party afterwards, crazy shit. Anyway, not relevant.

I missed Filler but my friend told me they were great so I bought a demotape and apparently they're great. Win-situation!

I watched Transit play but they were kind of boring. Some slightly better songs but most of the time it didn't get to me. Pretty wired. Cool Millencolin cover though. Probably still better than Millencolin ever played it live. Can't say for sure though. Not bad, but not great.

Missed/skipped Balance And Composure due to no definite interest and hangouts. I've heard they were cool though. They probably were. Everything is cool.

Title Fight was the reason I came to the show. They were the only band on the line-up that I kinda knew. I've heard their first album and it's really great. They put on a great show, with lots of energy on stage. They have great songs, but it was really remarkable that their songs sound really similar. Not that I care, I listen to pop punk that all sounds teh same. As long as it's good, they can write the same song over and over for all I care. Really enjoyed the show, sang along to the songs I knew/recognized and danced a tiny tiny bit. Had fun mostly. Great band, genuine guys and extremely young, damn!

Than the DJ played NoFX and Black Flag, and we hit the city until the early hours. Great night.

You might be...

Oh God I had the chance to see Mikey Erg Monday evening. In Bonn. In Germany. In the BLA bar. And we ate burgers at Frittebud. It was awesome.

First band were The Arteries. I once read an interview with them and they seemed a cool band and apparently they are a cool band! The singer has lots of hair but also a great voice! The band played really tight and the songs sounded great!

Second up was The Slow Death, featuring Mikey Erg on drums. The singer was drink and couldn't help but explain that fact every once in a while. They played pretty good though. They are undoubtely from the Minneapolis area. Great show.

Mikey Erg then cam on stage with his guitar and I was overwhelmed. I was sooo happy to see this little nerdy dude who wears glasses that don't even stay in place. He started playing songs and it was amazing cause he played songs I love. Ergs! songs, the occasional cover and the occasional Mikey Erg song. The Ergs! songs were the coolest cause The Ergs!, for me, were one of the coolest bands ever. Consequently I enjoyed the show thoroughly, sang along a lot and got all emotional and stuff. He played Books About Miles Davis and at the end the guys from the other bands jumped in to do the grand finale and it was so cool. He played Saturday Night Crap-O-Rama as an encore I think and he left it at that.
The whole show was just him playing freaking powerchords, singing some lines and keeping hold of his glasses but it was one of the coolest damn things I've ever seen. Amazing songwriter. Amazing dude.
Seeing him again at Crossbonefest! Syke!

Fed Up

There was a hardcore show last Friday. I went to take a look. Couldn't stay till the end.

Expand Their Oceans are very young dudes playing metalcore. Not my thing, but all the more their thing, and they had some fans I guess. Cool.

Dead End Sin had both vocalists this time, which was cool. Hard.

Violent City is awesome. Only saw half the set cause I had to catch a train but people were going nuts. Awesome.

drunk rock

It's time for another list. No wait, I'll make it a mixtape, because that's cooler, more interesting and gives you something to (not) listen to. It's similar to this one but not the same. Aight?

This one's about albums that inspire me to get really drunk, both in a positive and a negative way. Basically: either they make me want to party and get drunk or they make me want to drink myself to sleep. Either way they're fantastic records.
I'll try to sequence the mix according to a night out. Feel great, have fun, party, drink too much, doubt self, end up lonely, hate stuff, pass out. Something like that.

1. Be My Doppelganger - No Composure (Backpack Beers)
Fun punx, beer punx, encouraging you to do stupid shit and enjoy life. Works for me. No Composure is like a sixpack in CD format.
2. The Leftovers - Eager To Please (Party 'Til We Die)
Although the subject material isn't always partylicious, the whole album screams "dance and drink yourself in a good stupor!" Okay, I will.
3. The Unlovables - Crush, Boyfriend, Heartbreak (Today's The Day (I Finally Kissed You))
This album explains life, but also every year, month and day makes a lot more sense after listening to this album. Get a beer, feel good and in love, get another, feel over the moon, get another few and choke on your tears.4. Dear Landlord - Dream Homes (High Fives)
Dream Homes is made for low lifes who drink budget drinks on Wednesday afternoons. Oh wait, it's made for me. I'll open another one.
5. The Dopamines - Expect The Worst (Cincinnati Harmony)
Are you unsuccesful? Are you a loser? Don't worry, there's always beer! That's one message that this Dopamines record oozes out. It'll make you much more of a loser but at least you'll care less.
5. Banner Pilot - Heart Beats Pacific (Intervention)
Everything this band does is gold. You know what else is gold(-ish)? Beer. I love drinking along to Banner Pilot. I should get to buying some whiskey for such records, but it's pretty expensive and I'm scared I'll get way too fucked up. Hmmmm. Hold on, I'm going to the store.
6. The Priceduifkes - Can't Lose (Start Drinking)
The drummer is a teetotaller so it's pretty obvious he doesn't write the lyrics. The PDS guide you to a life of self-loathing and failure. But there's a message of hope and inspiration as well. Just kidding, go drown your sorrows and watch Star Wars.
7. Team Stray - Popular Mechanics (Forget You)
I'd put this on every mix. Popular Mechanics is the best album for anything. When you're drunk, it's a lot funnier and a lot sadder, so it's a whole lot better.
8. The Ataris - End Is Forever (Bad Case Of Broken Heart)
This album could be a drinking game. Everytime Kris sings "heart" or "love" you drink. Everyone'll be smashed by track 8.
9. The Ergs! - Dorkrockcorkrod (Running, Jumping, Standing Still)
This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Kinda like beer does. Get it?
10. The Tattle Tales - Hearts In Tune (Her New Company)
The perfect summer evening record, but also the perfect autumn and spring record. Not good for winter. Why does this make me want to drink? Both the pop/party sensibility and the scary relevance to my life.
11. Osker - Treatment 5 (Numbskull)
You'll understand this album better when you're drunk. I doubt Devon feels that way, but I do and as soon as I hear those basslines i wanna get a beer and sob how much I suck at bass and how much everyone else sucks at life.
12. A Radio With Guts - Acoustic Series (Ten Shot Farewell)
I could've put Beat Heart Sweet Stereo Here, which has the same effect, but this acoustic session by Brandon Tussey is just so intense. He's the Bukowski of punk rock. AKA the drunk misanthropist/mysogynist of punk rock. I like the dude.
13. Killing The Dream - Fractures (Everything But Everything)
Makes me wanna kill myself, this album. Instead I just get drunk, way less implicative.
14. American Nightmare - Background Music (There's A Hole In The Shadow Of The Pru)
Coming from Boston, there's probably some straight edge dudes in this band. I'm sorry if so, but I like/need to get my head unclear for this album. Fuck.
15. Jawbreaker - Dear You (Basilica)
No comment. Has an unexplainable effect. Get drunk.

Download the mix here: http://www.mediafire.com/?6ff37me18f724d2

Hardcore's back in town

Ever heard about this style of music they call hardcore punk? Well, it appears that it is, as they say, alive!
I went to do some research on the subject yesterday and from empirical evidence it is deducted that hardcore indeed lives.

The first phase of the research was by means of a band called Dead End Sin, whose rehearsal room was also the venue. Insane. Super cool venue. Dead End Sin pulled off a decent show but I'm not into it, it has too many breakdown for my tender body. However, they're dedicated to what they do and that's what counts. +1 for hardcore.

The next evidence was the fury of The Ignored. I've heard their stuff on compact disc (that's a CD, noobs) and I think they're great but their live show absolutely slays (as opposed to The Setup (see later), whose show kills). There're like 4 people who do vocals in this band. Great harmonies ensue. Great songs, lots of powerage, energy and primarily a sense of enthusiasm! They did a True Believers and What Happened? cover. They played a lot of great songs of their own. Whoo, fun times! +1

For earlier data we can conclude that Homer is top-notch melodic punk rock/hardcore material. They're loud, they're catchy, they're rocking and they're simple really good. They played some new songs off the upcoming album and it's probably gonna be a smash hit. +1

Countdown would still have to convince me, as I am a Countdown-virgin. Never heard 'em before. But HOLY FUCK THEY ARE LOUD. Damn, girl. Really good band, get into it. I know I will! +1

Groundbreaking proof came with the release show for A Strength Wihin's Still Searching EP. It was pretty much the funnest show I have done in a while. Hardcore dancing, regular dancing, circle pit dancing, sing-along dancing. Atmosphere was just delightful, show was hard as nails and the new songs are sooooo good. Funny thing is that the EP has been out since June I guess, but that's cool. The dudes played their hearts out as always and they take pride in what they do and what they're part of. They're goddamn honest and they shred like hell. Guns Up cover and Still Searching as encore song, again, they had already played pretty much everything they put out. Great show, great atmosphere, great band. +1
EVERYTHING WE SEE AND HEAR ISN'T THE ABOLUTE TRUTH. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

The Setup is a force I had actually pretty much forgotten about but I still love this band a lot. But you know, when The Setup plays, The Setup kills. I was dissappointed in myself that I had forgotten a lot of lyrics to songs I used to spin regularly. The show was ace though, played classics like Out Of Sync and Winter, played Hostile Eyes which has one of the best riffs they've ever written and ended it all with motherfucking Death Of A Nation. The mosh was off the hook, got hit in the teeth at one point and as my teeth are pretty fragile I stood back for a while. Couldn't help getting back in and dancing again, cause I was really in the mood. Sometimes I have to let the hardcore kid in me out and dance like there's no tomorrowwwww. +1
Also it's been ages since I've seen The Setup perform, so it was just awesome.

In sum, best show in ages, I had so much fun. Buy Still Searching. Support local bands.
The place was packed so that's another factor as to why hardcore would be alive. Thrilled to see so many peepz show up at a show with only Belgian bands.


Q.E.D.

Dance!

Q: What does a ska band say when they release a new album?
A: pickituppickituppickitup!
BADUMTSH

As you might have guessed by the silly joke, I went to a ska show on Friday. It was time to get down so I did. Well, kind of, I have no idea how I have to get down. I'll have to check up on that.
The show was a Rock Café show. Now, the Rock Café isn't the biggest place (actually it's pretty small) and if the bands alone count about 5 to 7 members each, it gets pretty full. It was probably the biggest audience I had ever deen in the Rock Café. Insane but super cool and super fun.

First band was Poor Excuse For A Human, a skapunk band from Ghent who play skapunk songs. Pretty good, some cool covers of Goldfinger, NoFX and Mad Caddies, and some good tunes. Vocals, however, were monotonous as fuck and the party-vibe was kinda missing. Not a bad show, but I wasn't really impressed. Sorry guys.

Then Airplane was there, from Brussels, and they represent party. More on the ska-ska side but really really good. Song in English, Spanish, French, … All kind of stuff. They played the Tetris tune. They were incredibly fun. They looked happy. They got a party going. They covered motherfucking Ace Of Spades as a ska song. Best thing I've heard in my life. I'm not the ska freak but these guys were killing it. Best band of the night.

Next up was The Coconut Butts from Germany. Saw the first half of their set and it was pretty good. Really rude boy-ish and pretty typical actually. Fun band, but I had my belly full of ska at the moment (dutchism!) so I went to have a beer downstairs.

Last band was Overweight. Fun fun fun. Got me dancing almost I think!

So yeah, I got my ska shot for the year. Thanks!

Guys with guitars

Okay so I was like "hell I'm gonna go to this show in Anwerp, I have nothing else to do and I've heard a PJ Bond song once and I'm gonna drink beers and it'll be fun". Next thin I knew all of that was correct.

On Monday I went to De Kleine Hedonist which is like a literary hipster kind of bar in Antwerp. I was early so I started drinking (expensive) beers and I read Jerk Store fanzine #9, which was really good. After a while this guy from Switzerland grabbed his guitar and a mic and got on "stage" - note: not really a stage. He dismissed the mic because it wasn't necessary.
This dude's name is Greg Laraigne, you might know him from his band Hateful Monday. I didn't know him at all, but I'm really digging his songs. He has a punk rock background so a lot of his songwriting is influenced by punk rock, aside from influences such as Ryan Adams and other singer-songwriters. Some instant hits, some sad songs, some harmonica, a lot of passion and love for the stuff he's doing. He's a supernice guy, a great artist but humble and down-to-earth. Also pretty funny and he's good at English but there's a definite French accent which is funny sometimes. He has an album coming out on Shield Recordings, it's called Story Tellers, True Believers and it's AWESOME (I know because he sold/gave me a burnt copy of the record, but the lps aren't ready yet. I also know because I am good at listening to music, I really am.) So buy that stuff, man!

I asked a friend to come over to have some beers and he did so I was not alone anymore. He also thought it was good (he saw like half the set). So yay!

Then this dude PJ Bond came on with his guitar and he plays songs. You probably don't know him from the band Outsmarting Simon, but he played in that band. Now he left home and plays around the world. I think it's crazy but awesome. He plays songs he writes and thankfully the songs he writes rule. I like sad songs. I also like happy songs, though. He played all kinds of songs, sometimes powerful, sometimes fragile. He's less punk rock influenced, compared to Greg.  PJ Bond also has records on Shield Recordings and records rule and Shield rules as well.

Random facts:
- There were like 6 people watching the shows.
- Hmmmm, beer.
- My brother came to have a beer after the show, which was cool. Den Dimi also arrived suddenly, another awesome thing.
- I wish I didn't need to catch a train.
- Both PJ and Greg have beards, plaid shirts and tattoos. I think it's cool but it's also pretty obvious. Funny.

So after this night of fun fun fun I decided to head to Hasselt for their second tour show in Belgium at de Carpe Diem. Cool bar. Arrived pretty early again, drank beers, hung out.
Greg did his thing and I was able to sing along to some songs (noteably Nothing To Write Home About, Geneva's Burning and Let The Lucky Guys Play). He did a Ryan Adams cover and a Brian Adams joke-combo. He's awesome, just trust me on this.
PJ also did his thing and yet again played his heart and everybody else's heart out. Best dude. Best dude.

Random facts:
- Lots of beers. Some shots, thanks to Greg/PJ, thanks dudes! Fun bar!
- Lots of hanging out. Heard quite a lot of cool stories about touring and learned a lot of stuff and got a lot of stuff I need to check out.
- Thanks for Dennis for the place to sleep.
- Did an interview with Greg & PJ for the next 'zine. It's not really good cause I'm not a good interviewer and I only knew them since Monday, but they had some cool things to say about the boring subjects I asked them about.

Fountains Of Wayne

So, instead of spending a fair amount of weeks looking forward to a Fountains Of Wayne show, I just noticed yesterday morning that they were playing Belgium yesterday evening. Holy fuck. A friend of mine actually read about it and posted on the facebook shiznit and that's how I discovered and got totally siked the next 12 or so hours.
This September Zac from the Wellingtons recommended them to me so I checked them out properly (of course I had heard and loved Mexican Wine and Stacy's Mom) and they're an amazing pop band (one of the best). Their song writing sensibility is just untouchable.
And now I was bound to see them live on stage. Siked as fuck.

The show started with David Mead, who is a singer-songwriter with a hat. Seriously? Yeah, seriously. But, all stereotypes aside, and although he didn't do anything original, he played some great tunes on the verge between serious shit and less serious shit. Highlight was probably Guy On Guy, a perfect example of that. Electric guitar was a pro because it gave the songs more power and a certain drive that lots of singer-songwriters have lacking. Likeable dude, his next album is called Dudes. You can check it out if if you're into it.

Then Fountains Of Wayne came up. I'm used to smaller punk rock shows so I always find it funny to see bands with roadies and intro music and so on. So they came on stage and BAM - Little Red Light. The show got going immediately. All the hits came along, and they of course have nur hits. Super tight performance and amazing sound as well. No hold-ups except for a broken amp which got replaced fast and the kept playing with guitarist on bass and bassist on keyboards. The show must go on. Audience participation which was cool (3 people got on stage with percussionist things). And the songs, they were amazing. Acoustic, electric, slow, fast, it was all well-balanced, didn't bore in the least and just really fitting. Radiation Vibe got split into with 2 or 3 covers right in the middle of the song. The upbeat stuff generally got more reaction obviously but the slower or softer stuff is equally as good. I was happy during the whole set.
The guys are really down-to-earth and although the guitarist looks like he should be in Mötley Crüe they don't act like rock stars. They're just Fountains Of Wayne, a really good power pop band. And as every good band does, they as well had an encore planned. Of course it included Stacy's Mom, their biggest hit and probably rightfully because it might just be their best song. But as everyone was expecting Stacy's Mom, the dude just held on to his acoustic guitar... and started jamming and acoustic (full-band, of course) version of it. It was far above awesome. And it's really cool they do that because you're not gonna hear that anywhere else. Last song was Sink To The Bottom and that was a major ending. Audience singing the chorus and stuff. Makes you feel alive.

In my kind of scene, it's stagedives that make you feel alive. Who the fuck needs stagedives?

Also a friend of mine didn't go and he told he was just gonna "listen to the cd later on". Yeah, buddy, you're still missing out. Live show was seriously 20 times better.

Bands 'n' stuff

So Friday night is a usual show night.
The start of a weekend and the end of the working week. For me it's pretty much the reverse but nevermind.

No Way Out play pop punk. 5 really young dudes from Hamme I think (making them the 2nd Hamme-band I saw last week) with great ideas. The live show wasn't all that jazz, though. Not really tight, but considering they're still a young band with not that much stage experience 'n' stuff I'll let that slip. Songs were pretty neat, great whoa-ohs. The vocalist has a pretty palatine sound I guess. Catchy tunes, sometimes a bit flattekes but definitely listenable.

A Hero Build followed and they, well, they rule. Took a minute to get used to the vocals because I expected something else but it was aight 'n' stuff. So they have an EP out that ya'll should check and they played all of it live plus a cover of No Trigger (I think it was Bust Tropical but I could be wrong though). One guitar player did the Propagandhi thingy with his guitar. Lots of energy, they were surely into it and I'm really impressed actually.
(Also, cute bass player.)

Last band was Drunktank from the Netherlands. They won't play for a while after November because of things 'n' stuff, but I caught them in Mechelen. Never seen or heard them before, but they were great. Skatepunk, as I expected, with supertechnical riffs. Sometimes I was thinking they tried too much because it seemed too "constructed", but overall I was into it and they put on a hell of a show. A variety of vocals makes it all the more interesting and a good sense of fun makes it, well, fun.
'n' stuff.

My Very Own Short Music Collection

Hey, I made a mix of short songs like the guys at Fat Wreck Chords did in 1999.
There's no tracklist nor any artwork because I'm too lazy and it's a total of 59 songs so yeah.

Here's a screenprint of what's in it, though:

So that's a selection of punkrock, hardcore and some odd one. Check it at:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mj4n06vwcsd9wvc

Dilbeek Party (Foul)

I went to Dilbeek on Monday night. Halloween night. Nothing special. Some cool bands played and some less cool bands played.

The Homeless played first. Not really tight but I'm digging their style and passion. You can hear the influences (More Than Life being an obvious one) but they're definietely trying to put their spin on it. Their debut EP sounds good so I'm expecting good things to come out of these guys. Passionate hardcore as I like it.

Rebuild next. Good show, as always. They sure know how to put on good shows. Stellar band. Great people with a lot of heart and soul in the music, the performance and for the whole hardcore/punkrock scene. Their EP is finally bound to be out in the next few weeks/months after a huge delay but I'm stoked as fuck. Funny thing is that most of the songs on the 7" are already outdated, so to speak. Their live show has moved on, obviously.
If they record another record now it'll probably be out by 2014, so get stoked!

Off The Charts played at homebase but weren't en forme. It wasn't all how it supposed to have sounded and the interludes they made up weren't really rehearsed through so that became a little soup (dutchism!). But I love these guys so much so I still rocked out to their songs. They're now definitely getting away from teh demo sound and they're becoming an individual band. People will say "oh yeah Off The Charts, they sound like... well they sound like Off The Charts".

Then Kim from OTC changed position to bass and flipped genre as to play with Breathing While Buried, a heavy metalcore band. I spend a great deal of my teenage years listening to metalcore and occasionally I put on some songs, so I wasn't completely turned off. They're straight forward and I like that in a band. They had the crabmoves going on which is obviously totally ridiculous but I reckon you got to do something, right? As far as metalcore goes, I dug it, but I wouldn't spend my euroz on it.

I was supposed to go partying in de Zomaar afterwards but I had to work the next day so I changed my mind last minute and took a train home. Kinda regret it but it's a tough world right.

State of Gedaan (AKA I'd rather be at The Fest 10)

Friday night is a well-known night for punk rock shows.
Last Friday State Of Mine played their last show. Aw.

Hogwash opened. They are from France and they couldn't decide on speaking English or French. No biggie. Hogwash, my friends, rules. They seriously blew me away. One of the guitarists is insane in the membrane and kept going on & off of the stage, partying, making funny faces, the whole lot. Guys are super-talented and combine catchyness with a technical style of playing. Be sure to check it out. I bought 3 CDs, I know de Rak did too, you should too.

Then State Of Mine came to say goodbye. I'm not particularly a fan of their full length, but their first batch of songs (the demo + split with the Octopussys) I found to be pretty great. Saw them a fair amount of times but tonight was definitely a blasting show. The last party. Lots of people partying, great atmosphere. A Bigwig cover. Old songs, new songs. It was cool to see them one last time.

Now, I'm not a skatepunk kid whatsoever, but apparently MUTE is the best motherfucking band in years. They're from Canada, land of Belvedere/This Is A Standoff and play this really energetic, metalriff-induced skatepunk that is not really my thing actually. Other than that, I sang along to 5 words I think, those were the only ons I knew, and the last song, which was a cover of Head Under Water (Surfers, obviously). The rest of the set was good and the audience was off the fucking hook. I tried to dance at multiple times but found myself too fragile to mosh amongst the massive 20- to 30-somethings going absolutely bonkers. And with bonkers I really mean all-out keh-razee. Such a fun show. Gotta love the punk rock.

Hangouts are always great. Lots af drunk geezers.

The "Dope, man!"s

You might remember The Dopamines from such releases as Expect The Worst, unarguably the best release of 2010. You probably also remember them from one of the best releases of 2008. It was their self-titled album. It's called "The Dopamines".
Anyway, on their first and since then last European tour they ran out of records to sell so they sold/gave away "Discography" CD-Rs. I bought one at one show and got one for free at another show. Weird, right?
This blog post is dedicated to that CD-R, which is basically everything except for Expect The Worst, the split with Dear Landlord and the split with Till Plains. But because it is so wicked, I will  get into their side of the Till Plains split as well.

"The Dopamines"
I'm blasting it right now and it's been way too long. PUNCH DRUNK = DOPAMINE. I still can sing along to every word and I still stumble my tongue over half of the lyrics. Amazing. I want to turn it up as loud as possible but I'm in my student/dorm room now and I don't wanna disturb my fellow housemates. Even though they'd probably have a revelation over how good this is. All irrelevancy aside, The Dopamines are trashing my stereo with their first album. Because it is so good. It's pop punk but it sounds so much fuller than most pop punk. It's not generic at all. Jon W is one of the more talented bass players in pop punk music and his bass sounds bad-ass.
Damn, I'm at track 5 already. Fun Tags, it's called, or "that song with the 'party plates'." I'D RATHER GET A DUI, THAN GIVE UP THIS LIFE. I'm actually totally clueless about most of their lyrics but there's no denying this remains a lyrical masterpiece. Sometimes incredibly simple and accurate, but sometimes mysterious, far-fetched and all-out incomprehensible. Whether it's about being drunk for the x-th time or about a deceased pet dog, these guys know how to pull off intelligent stuff. For example, the song title "Beer Telescope" obviously refers to "beer goggles", but it extraposes it to the Dopamines degree, and that's not smart or intelligent, but it's witty and clever for sure. That's an important part of writing songs.
The punchy, hardcore-punk influenced music creates to-the-point songs that are in fact better expositioned in live shows than on CD or LP or whatever. At such occasions it's also evident what amount of passion the Dopadudes put into their music. It's their thing and you can absolutely hear that. Of course, it's wild and loud and fast and punk, but it's also angry, heartfelt, passionate and fragile. YEAH LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES, TRYING TO MAKE EVERY WORD RHYME. WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. Both the searing guitar sound as well as the half-retained/half-shouted vocals make this a perfect band for those who have always thought punk rock needed more alcohol and more desperation.
The album closes with Navigation Point, which on this CD-R and on the CD in electric, but on the vinyl there's an acoustic version of it, which is absolutely amazing.

"Soap And Lampshades"
I hope you like fast and short cause that's what you get on this. 5 songs of about a minute or maybe 2 and 1 eponymous magnum opus. Operate. Jon Has Anxiety. Fuck my life. Ryan Has Anxiety. And I drink myself to sleep. Worstest Case Scenario. So wake up. Structural Failure. That's when it hits. Soap And Lampshades. Probably one of their bestest songs. Washing my hands with the bestest of friends.
Songwriting-wise this is probably better than the self-titled, generally speaking. I don't know shit, of course.

"Songs About Fucking Up"
This is from a split with The Copyrights, with whom they've been compared to death. The comparison isn't even accurate, but hey. On this split they definitely seperate themselves. Try This Kids At Home is awesome and so is October 24th, a song that ended up on Expect The Worst. I can feel the frustration dripping off of these songs. Pretty much a teaser for Expect The Worst, the album on whoch they have perfected their sound.

"August Eyes"
This is a cover song of The Seedy Seeds, a Cincinatti pop band. At first I thought they had maybe included a new song on this Discography but it isn't. That means they've done a pretty damn good job. I reckon.

"The Dopamines/Till Plains"
Not on the CD-R but just so damn good. This includes the best Dopamines song EVER, and that is of course Car Trouble. That's about as much as I want to get into this release. Get it, get it now and listen to it numerous times. Plz.

Radio-o-o

I noticed I hadn't posted about this yet. So get this:

Normally I wouldn’t advise you to listen to the radio, but if you live in the Leuven area, you might wanna tune in to Radio Scorpio this year. On Thursdays, between 8 and 9 PM, a This Ain’t Noise radio show will be on the air. Hosted by yours truly, Domien and Bram, helped out by Maarten.

That's about it. Check it: http://www.radioscorpio.be/thisaintnonoise

What's new in de Kempen pt. 2 (southwest of Lier)

Some totally new EP's released by punk rock bands! Whoa!
Tantras EP is out since October 1st and 15 Minute Powernap EP is out since October 8th!

Tantras - Tantras EP
DIY, 2011

1. Bitchkrieg
2. TNT-Show
3. Heartbreaker
4. Danny Is On Heroin
5. I Wanna Do You
6. Old Generation



"Tantras coming down your town!"  This Sint-Katelijne-Waver band (sounds cool, right?) have finally released their first demo/EP. Whew!
The cover/logo already makes clear that this is a rock'n'roll band inspired by the Ramones. The first song, an instrumental one, proves that. Bitchkrieg is a perfect first impression for the Tantras. Fast, melodic, punk and rocking! TNT-Show is like the standard "bandname/punkrockshow" song a lot of bands in the genre have going on. It's good. I'm digging the vocals, not too special but that's not always what I'm looking for in a band.
Heartbreaker is easily the best song on the album. It has a pretty high early-Blink 182 vibe. Really catchy. The next song is the standard "[name] is on [drug]" song a lot of these bands have going on. Works a treat because Bart has studied farmacy, so he knows his drugs.
I Wanna Do You tells a lovely story of meeting a girl, wanting to have sex but getting shit outta luck. Fucking girls (pun unintended). Finally Old Generation looks down on the new generation of emo kids. Fucking emo kids.
Good EP, I'm expecting more from these guys. Nothing too out of the ordinary but look at the first songs the Priceduifkes or the Crackups put out and see where they are now. Tantras might as well be the next sensation in punk rock Belgium, or beyond! We'll see!
In the meantime, I'll be spinning this EP some more and trying to catch some TNT-shows. They're awesome and fun! Check it out!

15 Minute Powernap - Wake Up Call
(Thanks But No thanks Records, 2011)

1. ShinG
2. Pen And Power
3. Virtual Existence
4. Stay Focused
5. Run Away




So, 15 Minute Powernap is from Duffel and they make punk rock not unlike in the 90s. I guess you need a 15 minute powernap to fully be recharged for this bands shows and EP.
This shit is catchy, melodic and wicked. Unlike 80% of the bands I listen to, they used more than 3 chords and a lot of intelligent ideas about songwriting. The EP starts off with ShinG, a upbeat song about some ShinG. I have no clue what a ShinG is. Potential hit song, that's for sure! Pen And Power is awesome, but it's really a song criticizing what I do, so I'm puzzled. Will these guys hate me because I'm reviewing them? I hope not. Oh, well, at least I listen to the music I write about, which seems to be the main issue. Good song, great composition. They got the whole stop/start thing going on, and a lot (a lot!) of awesome melodies, solos and drum parts. Songs are mostly socio-psychologically themed, such as Virtual Existence, about social networking "als daar zijn Facebook.". Stay Focused is also a serious song but even if it's serious it's still light and digestible. It could get me dancing for sure (if I'm focused, of course).
The album ends with Run Away, one of the better songs. Could be an Iron Maiden song. I know that sounds weird but I really think so. But what do I know, right, "[my] so-called music knowledge makes [them] lose credibility".
I'm into this. Get into this. For fans of pop punk/punk rock that doesn't dound like the Ramones.

What's new in de Kempen pt. 1 (northeast of Lier)

There's some totally fresh Belgian punk rock album on the market that you need to check out!
If you don't feel like checking it out, no worries! I already did that for you!
New Crackups is out since October 14th & new Priceduifkes is out since October 15th!

The Priceduifkes - Can't Lose
(Monster Zero, 2011)

1. Puke For Breakfast
2. Break Stuff
3. Stuck
4. I'd Rather Be In The Jizzhut Tonight
5. Bye Bye Love
6. Trainwreck
7. Start Drinking
8. Frogprince
9. I.K.A.W.



The PDS have been one of my favourite (Belgian) bands for a long time. The coolest thing about this band is that they still sound the same as ever, just waaaaaay better. I can't stress that enough. You can't say that they "have gone back to their roots" or some shit, cause they're still there, at their roots. It's amazing. Also, this is the longest release they've ever done, clocks in at about 25 minutes! Insane, right? Totally!
Can't Lose is named after the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I vaguely remember seeing that show once in a while when I was younger but that's about it. After a "Gentlemen, synchronize swatches!"-quote from that series, the Duifkes start drinking - I mean: they start singing about drinking. Puke For Breakfast is a well thought-out concept of eating "glass sandwiches" (Dutchism: glazen boterhammen) instead of a proper meal and then passing out and throwing up because you drink too much and waking up to a pile of puke. Something like that. It sets the tone alright.
I feel like they have spent a real good amount of thought and time into these songs. They're structured to perfection, with various climaxes and crescendos and other fancy musical terms. Everything sounds great. VS's drumming's tight as fuck, Mambo's guitar work stands out on a lot of the tracks (I'm thinking Bye Bye Love, Trainwreck, Stuck, ...) and Ricky's bass punches you in the face while he himself spits at you with his lyrics. Mambo's backing are far more present on this recording, which is really a good thing because it adds more to the songs that some earlier recordings lacked.
Some of the best lyrics are on this as well. My favourite is without a doubt the Jizzhut song. I can really relate to it. Just imagine sitting in a stupid bar or club and not being able to beat your meat to "some slut chok[ing] on a cock". I'd write a song about that too. That's deep, man. Other than porn and beer, there's also a lot of love-related songs. I think there's definitely some frustration going on. Bye Bye Love is a perfect epitaph for a van, Break Stuff is better than the Limp Bizkit song (by at least a mile) and Frogprince just confronts you with the truth. "You thought I was your frogprince, but I'm just some fucking toad."
And then the album ends on a high note: I.K.A.W. aka I Know A Wookie. This may come as a surprise or act of blasphemy, but I'm not a Star Wars fan. I've seen a couple of the movies though so I know my way around it. Anyway, this epic of 'intergalactic coolshit' would make George Lucas a proud man. Best song to come out in 2011. Approximately.
As for the album, I could probably say it's also the best record but maybe that's not true. I don't know.
Major kudos to the PDS boys for this magnum opus, though!

Check it: http://thepriceduifkes.bandcamp.com/

The Crackups - Animals On Acid
(DIY, 2011)

1. Rich And Cool
2. Cuba
3. The Only Cure Is Alcohol
4. Trashed
5. Teenage Alcoholic Junks
6. Off With Your Head
7. Secret Plan
8. Work Sucks
9. Drunk With You
10. A Girl Is Only Good to Fuck
11. The Bitch Is Back

The Crackups come from the same area as the Priceduifkes do, but they take a different direction. They're heavily set in yearning, reckless rock'n'roll and fast senseless punk rock. It's been some time since their first album so I've been really looking out for this one. Their songs have become way more elaborate and melodic than before. Let's see how this goes down.
This starts out with an electronic disturbing noise, then goes right into the riff of Rich And Cool. "Give me some money for a nice blonde hooker." is the first thing I hear. I'm glad to hear they haven't been writing good lyrics. The lyrics are the mainly criticized point for The Crackups and at first, I as well was put off by it. But by now I've grown to like the simplicity, banality, absurdity and blunt sexuality of the songs. It's all part of it, y'know. It works.
With Cuba and The Only Cure Is Alcohol they continue to rock hard. Cuba is actually re-recorded with a slightly different solo, I noticed. It's probably better but I'm used to the other version so it's weird. The Crackups rely on both heavy and deep guitar riffs as well as high and screeching melodies. The rhythm section supports this really well, their drummer is one of the sickest I've ever seen/heard. Sometimes I think I'm listening to Zeke playing Mastodon songs. It's super fast and super heavy.
Listening to Teenage Alcoholic Junks gets me excited to go drink excessively. It's one of the catchiest songs on the album and the end is just... thunderous. Amazing finish. You can hear the professionality dripping off, compared to the self-titled. I get a little lost with the outro to Off With Your Head, though. Not bad, but: "heh?"
They've put 3 songs of the Bloody Bloody Kempen split on Animals On Acid, and I think they're all re-recorded and of course re-sequenced so it's not like they haven't put any effort in it. The songs fit the album's general feeling of.. well, alcohol, laziness and bitchezzz. If I would take this as a concept album, then I'd say its theme is "alcohol and its effects". That would at least explain the artwork. It's awesome.
But this is not a concept album and The Crackups just do whatever they like. Drunk With You slows down a bit (which is a relative notion in CRCKPS terms) and seems to be a love song? Could this be? Wow. I'm impressed. Anyway, they completely destroy the image of romance with the best song in the entire world: A Girl Is Only Good To Fuck. I'm not lying, I'm fucking serious, please buy this record so you can listen to this song. So much truth in this. Who knew the Crackups could be so intelligent about gender issues. This one song solves all those years of struggle and obsolete feminism. Thanks, dudes!
The album ends with The Bitch Is Back, a fast song. Always good to end with a fast song.
In sum, The Crackups have become a powerhouse of punk rock on Animals On Acid. You should probably take acid if you're gonna listen to this so you can start trippin' balls and maybe you'll understand where these 'songs of alcohol' are coming from. Wowie.

Check it: http://thecrackups.bandcamp.com/

Unsober in October

Holy fucking shit. This weekend is a definite competitor for best weekend of my life.
You might've had a cool weekend, y'know, you probably went out to a bar or a club and drank, like, beers or something. But I, my friend, I went to Summer In October Punkrock Fest. Actually, if you're reading this, that probably means that you were there as well or would have liked to be there.

So this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down...

FRIDAY
I arrived at the Kroenkel fairly on time. First band was due to play at 8 o'clock, and that band was The Dead 70's Show. I think they've only been around for a few months, and I've only seen 'em once before, but I'm damn excited about this band. Standard 3-guy line-up and a general feel for fast melodic pop punk. Their songs are just really catchy, and the guy's voice tops it of. High-pitched and stuff, I'm into it.

The City Rockers played a reunion show. Off the hook, right? I haven't had the luck to see them before, actually, so this was my first City Rockers show, and one of their last City Rockers shows. Totally weird. But awesome as well, I'm glad I had the chance to see 'em, cause they FUCKING RULE. Super cool punk rock, with yelling and solos and harmonies and all that shit! Cool covers that I don't really remember anymore. I remember Teenage Kicks, but there were others as well. Anyway, kick-ass show, sad I haven't seen 'em before, y'know.

Next up was Psycho 44. The place was packed all of a sudden. Psycho 44 have like a radio hit and stuff, so they're probably an odd-one-out on the line-up. Good show I guess, but I was busy making up alternations on the hit song All My Demons Have Distortion. The most obvious being "All my demons have abortions", but we thought of some funny punk-inspired ones as well. Can't really remember them. Go figure.

Then Sunpower came, saw and conquered en the party got going. Sunpower is awesome, everybody knows that! God knows what songs they played. Palm for nen euro and pintjes for nen euro twintig gets you pretty drunk. Great show, I danced, I had fun. Whoo!

The Crackups fucking killed it. Their release show for the first album was one of my first real shows I think, back in 2008. Now they released Animals On Acid, the second album and probably the best. Definitely the best. Again, I know they played a sick set, but don't ask me for anything particular. I know they played A Girl Is Only Good To Fuck which is really the best song in the whole world. There was a whole lot of crazy dancing and singing going on. Awesome vibe.

Afterparty was pretty cool, didn't last too long though. We headed off to the Swing but it was full of old people so I went to bed.

SATURDAY
Friday night killed Saturday fun. Kind of. The worst hangover, man. Anyway, had some fun playing games in the afternoon, hanging out, drinking a couple.

At 5 o'clock suddenly the festivities started again. Cool. Off The Charts soundchecked with Off With Their Heads' Clear The Air. Saw half of the show, was awesome as always.

Missed Cani Pazzi because of hangouts and helping the PDS mark their CD-Rs. Kind of a shame. Missed The Griswalds cause I'm not into them. Saw like one song and got back out for burgers, beer and hangouts

Then Shredder played. The classic "welle zin Shredder" followed by multiple blasts of trashcore or whatever it's called. Cool show. Odd-one-out though, but who cares huh?

Joe Atom brought his Spazzy Bangers with him, which were really just Ricky from the PDS and Fraser from the MBS. They played 6 Atoms songs without any rehearsal and it wasn't that bad. Props to these guys. Fun show, The Atoms are pretty cool!

The fun continued with The Murderburgers. Not really a noteworthy set but I had fun and the Murderburgers rule so yeah. Joe Atom on bass!

DeeCracks ruled. Weasel & Riverdales cover: been there, done that. MUGWUMPS cover (with Ricky D): best thing ever. Thank God their own songs are wicked cool as well so a GREAT set alltogether. Joe Atom on bass!

Then the madness began. Priceduifkes CD release. Starting out with some long-ass intro and then banging into the show. They played close to all -if not all- songs of the new record, which was AWESOME because that album is awesome. Can't Lose will probably end up on my top 10 list. So fucking good. Just like the show. It's actually better live because it's faster. The crowd went nuts, me too (not all the time though, that shit is dangerous). They had brought a organ, which MC Ferdi played, to cover Cool Kids (Weasel) and Apekermis (Novtales). Other covers included Gainesville (D4) and that was of course off the hook crazy and super relevant. Great show, new album rox my sox and it will rox your sox too!
Get into it. For fans of drinking beer, porn sites, Star Wars, love and materialism. Now that I come to think of it, thematically this is very similar to the demo songs, but the songs are like 32 times better. More or less.

Red City Radio kept the rocking going. Amazing band, amazing live peformance. Even more punchy on stage than on the record. They covered ALL by the Descendents, great choice. A set full of fun, singing along, air guitars, and so on. Stellar band!

Whoo! The Apers started playing some goddamn songs, including One More Second Chance, which is cool because I don't think I've heard them play that one live. I love those guys and I love Kevin Aper.
Suddenly Wimpy Rutherford came out and -of course- they hit up We'd Have A Riot Doing Heroin. What else, right? Now, when I listen to the recordings, from like 1984, of these songs I don't get too excited. But Wimpy is definitely the man and with The Apers backing him up in 2011, with a more modern sound-age and an amazing live performance this became one hell of a show in no time. I'll be honest, I like Joe Queer miuch better than Wimpy but it's just something different really. Anyway, of course I sang along to hits like This Place Sucks (I had expected to hear it 2 times, but 3 times was even better), Didn't Want None, I Want Cunt and all the other hits. Ramones covers. A new Apers song. Another Apers song. Awesome set.

The afterparty was the best afterparty ever. Hit after hit after hit song and there still was a lot of people dancing, singing and drinking beer so I had so much fun. Thanks to Jelle Gommers for spinning a good deal of Parry Gripp/Nerf Herder songs!
Got to meet some people, made some new buddies, saw a lot of old buddies, had the most fun ever.
God I love this shit.
God I love this shittown.

Australian Youth

Saw Stolen Youth yesterday. Awesome band, stellar performance. Blew me away, and I was in the back so that's something! Bought the latest album but haven't had the chance to check it. Pretty excited though.
For fans of hardcore-y punk rock.

Intergalactic Coolshit Lovers

Did you know I have a sensitive side too? No? Well, I don't, so you couldn't have!
Anyway, I went to check out this mainstream band tonight, which is really weird. They're called Intergalactic Lovers and they are indie/pop/rock/music kinda stuff. They have a pretty girl who sings.

Fun fact: I think I recognized the bass player from The Dead 70's Show, so that made at least 2 punk rockers at an Intergalactic Lovers gig. They must feel so weird.

The show was great though. I don't really know any of their music. Well, apparently I did, I knew their two hit songs but I didn't know they were theirs. They started with Shewolf, which got crowd, well... sitting still. It was in a big lecture room so it was kinda weird but after a few songs some people got of their their lousy seats and the atmosphere was less tight and all. A couple of songs really sounded the same which was kinda lame.
The singer has a really typical voice, the instrumentation was awesome, the drummer especially, really good drumming. They went through a set of slower songs and more groovy, dancy songs. I didn't lose my interest which is a good sign. It was a fine show. No complaints. I can enjoy other music than punk rock as well, y'know!

I'm not mindless, I'm not clueless...
Contrary to a great deal of the other students attending, who were probably just there because it was free if you had a Culture Student Card (I don't have one, by the way) and so they could see a band with 2 hit songs and a pretty lady and tell their friends they went to a gig.

ANYWAY GOOD SHOW I HAD FUN I'M NOT A PUNK I'M JUST A GUY Y'KNOW.

Carpe Noctem

Monday night was a show night in Carpe Diem, Hasselt. I got pretty drunk at the show but mostly later. But you don't care, do you? You don't. You wanna hear about the music. The bands. The shows. The party. That kinda stuff.

Well, the night started a little later than it should've, which had its usual consequences of me not seeing the entire show.

Anyway, Off The Charts opened and as per usual they played really good. Same set as Sunday night kinda. Gijs did guest vocals for the Title Fight song again. The brand new song really kicks ass, I'm digging the way they're going. I heard something bout a OWTH cover but that didn't come true, probably due to time circumstances.

Rebuild surprisingly came to play some songs as an extension of the weekend tour with OTC. Killed it again, great songs, great musicianship, great band. They've been having problems with the release of their EP but it should be out some time soon now. Get into it. They sing "lovely words".

DeeCracks played next, and I love 'em. First time I saw them it was Monster Zero, and tonight they played their Weasel cover again, plus a Riverdales cover (respectivily Highschool Psychopath and Back To You). Of course their own songs are awesome as well. Solid show, bad sound though. Backup-vocals through the same mic, it's fun. Reall catchy band, Ramones pt. 16284748 but it's good (of course it's good).

The Murderburgers fired up with some hits songs but I had to leave them pretty soon. I've seen them so many times already and I'll be seeing them at the magnificent Summer In October Fest this Saturday, so that's okay.

I listened to House Boat on the train and sang along cause no-one was in my part except for me and my Cara Pils.

Up the punx.

ROCKTOBER

I love Sundays.
Tonight I was in Mechelen.

I didn't catch the Blowjob Benny Boys or Benny Blowjob Boys or Boyjob Blowbennys or something but they have a cool name and did start a running gag with that name that evening. Good job Blowbenny Jobboys.

I saw Rebuild perform though, and boy, I don't see them often but when I do I always think "they keep getting so much better". The show was awesome, lotsa passion, lotsa mosh. Hardcore as I like it. Great songs overall, no comments.


Off The Charts played next and they killed it once again. I've seen them a good amount of times but I think this was the first time I really danced along. So that was a lot of fun. They played some awesome new songs, a Title Fight cover and a Misfits cover. Such a great, great band.

This was the last night of a shot weekend-tour for Rebuild and Off The Charts. those band really love eachother (that mioght sound gay and non-punx, but it's really not). So that ensued in fun shows, small but great response and participazione.

The Living Daylights closed the night and they are and awesome band who I have discovered wy too late (only 1,5 months ago). The covered True Believers and I went apeshit.

Shout out to Jordi Ostir who is probably the funnest drunk I know. (I've only seen him sober one time I think. Maybe twice, probably not though.)

The Get Off Kids

I was downloading porn and getting ready to hit the hay but I figured I couldn't keep this blogspot (up)dateless so yeah.

Friday night I was superstoked because for the 3rd time in my life I had the chance to see The Get Up Kids live on stage. For the first time they' play a club show instead of a stupid festival.

Playing support were Get Off My Shoes, who I missed and Eastern Conference Champions who I watched because the bass player was a fair lady and they did some cool drum stuffs. Not very interesting otherwise, sorry.

The Get Up Kids let me down with their self-proclaimed best album of 2011, "There Are Rules". But I'm not one to give a fuck and let that withstand me from having a good time and checking them out on tour.
They started the show with Your Petty Pretty Things, which is ok. The rest of the setlist was generally awesome, sometimes slowed down for the good cause, sometimes slowed down for a less good cause. I remember a good deal of Four Minute Mile/Something... era songs, which are obviously my favourite. Some touching stuff (and with TGUK, 'touching' has a totally different meaning) like Out Of Reach and Campfire Kansas. Replacements cover of Beer For Breakfast. I heard a good song from their last album and about 3 or 4 bad/strange ones.
The show itself was really cool, the guys were into it. There were some bass problems for a while but they handled it perfectly. Jokes about knowing no jokes. A Slayer riff. Mindless stage banter. And very tight playing. They might've been drunk, they were still almost on top of their game. I don't care about mistakes being played because, you know, "every mistake that [they] make, [they] couldn't have made without [us]". I love this band and they just confirmed why I love 'em.
Remarkable was that the audience sucked balls. First of all, there really weren't that many people, which is really weird. Second of all, were these people really into the Get Up Kids? There was this girl all the way front stage and she didn't move, nor sing along, nor even smile. What the fuck? Weirdest audience I've ever witnessed during a band of this grandeur.
Anyway, I could probably describe this show in a thousand different ways which would all conclude to "YEAH AWESOME" so yeah.
If you wanna hear my rant for 10 minutes about how I love the Get Up Kids, hit me up personally!

NASPOWTHCIV

Hey, I'm getting behind on a lot of stuff but here's a quick show review from last Thursday. I'll hopefully put up some more interesting music related stuff here in the future, but I'm busy etc. It seems I've only been doing show stuff.
Just make sure you check out the bands who seem cool, aight?

So, there was a show at Hof Ter Lo (which is now Trix). Fun fact: there were 2 shows and at first I ended up at the gay metalcore show with BlessTheFall and some other gay-ass bands. Fun anecdote: some skank was asking if there were signing sessions. Who the fuck cares about signing sessions at a show. That shit ain't worth the suffix '-core'.

So, I got on the right track then and I ended up downstairs, for a punk/hardcore show.
Not Afraid opened the night, and while musically this is really good, I don't seem to adapt to the vocals. Fans of True Colors and youth crew generally will probably dig the hell out of this, but yeah. The stage is way too big for this kind of bands anyway. It was too big for 3 out of 4 bands who played that night. Weird, innit? Fuck you Heartbreaktunes.

Sunpower kicks ass but they were totally out of their comfort zone on that big-ass stage. About half-way through the set Mike jumped off stage and people finally came closer. Not really dancing, but the atmosphere was definitely better. Sunpower is an awesome band and I managed to interview them for our This Ain't Noise radio show (this thursday, 20h-21h on Radio Scorpio, Leuven, more info in a later post).


Off With Their Heads was the band I came for and they kind of slayed. Zack didn't come on tour so it was only one guitarist, but it was awesome. All the hits, lots of stuff from Hospitals, which was awesome. Overall awesome show. They should've headlined but because hardcore is way more popular they didn't. Whoo. Great singalongs and a small-scale dance party. Stupid dutch dude.

CIV headlines and they were the reason that there were so many old guys who asked to work with 'de late' on Friday and had to leave their children with the mom for 1 night. Good show, but I'm not into it. Sorry, don't fucking patronize me, old dudes.

ZINE #3 BITCH

There's a new edition of This Ain't Noise fanzine, and it's called #3. This is because it is the third edition. Can you believe it? I can.
I've been working pretty hard on making this better and better but it hasn't helped so far. It still sucks.
But you have to buy it anyway, cause it's full of cool stuff you can read or look at!

It contains:
- INTERVIEWS with PARRY GRIPP, NOT ON TOUR, HOT WATER MUSIC and MAKE DO AND MEND.
- RECORD REVIEWS until you get sick of them.
- so many BANDS ‘n’ stuff that you need to CHECK OUT on your own.
- random LISTS of things that deal with music.
- a report of my trip to northern ITALY and a check-up on the PUNK ROCK there.

It costs:
50 cents a piece!

It has:
- 20 A5 pages
- no colours (so, black-and-white)
- a pressing of 100 copies
- maybe a sticker if you're lucky

For distribution information, check out the facebook page! You bunch of nerds!

If you have further questions, hit me up on facebook or thisaintnoise@gmail.com

Please check it out, I'm pretty stoked about it! Hopefully it is rightful stokedness!

The Welly's

I saw The Wellingtons 2 times last week.

The first time they rocked in Brescia.
The second time they rocked even harder in Villadossola.
Both shows were beyond awesome.
Best band. Love 'em.
Check it out.
They covered Kiss' Rock 'n' Roll All Nite en Weezer's Keep Fishin'.
Kate's pretty hawt. They're all sexy motherfuckers, actually.
They sure know how to put on a fun show. Probably the funnest show I've seen in a while.

Here are some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZn0QrWboS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpWL3tf9sk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFn7dOJn0bQ

Whoo!

Our love can't make a spark, when your heart's 20 below.

Hiya, sorry for the delay, but I went on a holiday without access to the outside world.
The evening before, though, I went to a punk rock show.

The Adjectives started playing and they were pretty bad at the start, but then it got better. So that's alright! Cool songs about punk rock and girls. 2 cool things. They played a fairly decent set overall and I guess I'd like to see them again. Fun punk. Guitarist had a cape on, for whatever reason. Cool guys doing their very best!


The Dead 70's Show was way faster and actually pretty awesome. Some problems with vocal consistency, but besides that a tight set of rock'n'rolling punk rock. Plus, Manges-esque outfits!


The 20Belows from Denmark played a couple songs but I couldn't catch the whole set because I had to catch a bus to London. Super pity. They're a great band. Check out "For Better Days".