28-03-2011

We'll always have Sikome Beach.

Dear God. This weekend, guys. This last weekend. Who would've guessed that some of the coolest bands around would play in a shithole like Houthalen-Oost? Not me, but it was sure worth the trip to the far country of Limburg.

Of course I'm talking about Crossbone Fest 2011, put up by the awesome Lost Youth crew. Everything about it was awesome. As for the music, check it out:

Friday
…was a hardcore day. There were hardcore kids, hardcore bands and some punkers. There was moshing, slam-dancing and singalonging.

First up was Violent City, a fairly recent band, playing hardcore to my liking. Not too tough, but pissed off enough. Elements of late 80's hardcore and some new school influence, I think. Vibrant set, a cool Negative Approach cover and their singer wore a Natalia t-shirt. Releaseshow 29the of April in Tessenderloo!
The next band was Rebuild, from Houthalen/Getwood city. I had heard their demo and thought it was quite good. Their show was awesome. Lots of energy, great songs, a lot of new stuff. I danced a bit. Cool band, cool live performance, interesting to say the least. They also have a 7" coming out sometime soon, "I will Sing Like A Bird While I Fly Away From You", or something like that. I'm digging the title already, hopefully the new recordings are equally as good!
Cracks In The Wall play fast, pissed off, raging hardcore/punk. They didn't hit any cracks in any wall, but sure as hell tried their best. Not that into it, but if it's fast and hard and I've got a couple beers in my tummy I'll dance to it! Aight!
Citizens Patrol was basically the same thing, but different guys. I guess I danced a bit harder since I was a bit drunker by then. Cool band.
Sunpower ended the night with a cup of old school hardcore-punk similar to Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and the likes. One of the best bands out of Belgium. Great for punkdancing, sing-alongs, hugging punx, bumping into people, pogo-pogo and shouting words to songs I don't know. Also great cover songs, as always. We're just a minor threat.

The afterparty was crazy. 'Nough said.

REBUILD

CRACKS IN THE WALL

CITIZENS PATROL

SUNPOWER

Pictures: Jeroen Put http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?id=1115863659&aid=2083348

Saturday
…fun was killed by Friday night. Not exactly, but that's how the song goes, isn't it? After a deep plunge in the depths of Hengelhoef swimming pool, the punx were refreshed for a whole afternoon/evening/night of punk rock fun!

At 4:30 pm, The Dutch Rudders took the wheel (haha, get it?). They play songs with velocity and melody, but primarily velocity. Not always as tight as it should be, but I like these guys, they play my, my, my, my kind of music. Songs about porn, girls, some other stuff and a Descendents cover which I sang along to. Bought a shirt 'cause I was there. And they're cool. Also included on page 4 of This Ain't Noise magazine, check it!
Lawn Mowing Sundays followed up, a local band. Not bad, but for most people not really interesting as they are not an exact Ramones copy. Sorry guys! I did enjoy some songs and their singer looks kinda like the Strike Anywhere guy.
After another hamburger, which were actually frikandellen/curryworsten, I was motherfucking blown away by The Bat Bites. Not that I expected anything bat (haha, get it? - okay sorry.), but apparently their songs on cd are just terribly produced. I've calculated that their live performance is about 25 times better than the CD version, with a margin of 7. Really powerful pop punk songs from Rotterdam punk rock city. Another plus to the live show: there's a girl! Yes! And she's fairly fair! And her full name is 2 animals. It doesn't really get any better. Fun band, lots of good songs, lots of new songs, lots of awesome, and a medley of among others the Queers, Green Day, the Beatles and the Rembrandts to finish off the set.
Luckily for the pop punk/punk rock fans they were just the beginning and set the tone alright. While the punx were drinking another beer, Deecracks took over the stage. Great band. Last time I saw them was at Monster Zero Mash 2009, When they just released the Beach 90 EP and played some Ramones and Weasel covers. Now they have a full cd out (since last year, actually), with an abundance of great songs, quite a few of which they played. Scrapy vocals go hand in hand with 3 well-chosen chords of some well-chosen major scale and become sing-alongable anthems such as Beach 90 and Monkey Boy. great set, fun to watch and a Ghoulies cover with Kepi himself. Kepi is one of the coolest people in the world.
And the -bam!- BURGER TIME. The Murderburgers started and they didn't stop until their set was over (haha, get it? - yeah, I'll stop)! Same formula as always, superfast playing, 2 short guys and a tall drummer, a ginger singing incomprehensibly and a lot of punkdancing going on. They played probably one of the best sets I've seen by them, now that I think about it. Maybe I'm wrong, how the hell would I remember? They should lose the "Scottish" gimmick and just talk English, though. (Joke!)
Saturday was actually the only day of the week with slightly off weather, but The Hotlines brought the summer back in da house (actually in the Bassment). I guess infectious is the right word here. I don't understand why they don't seem to play Take The Wheel, but their set was awesome. Cool old songs, cool new songs, something for everyone. A lot of hit songs, a lot of dancing. The Beach Boys would be proud. They speak (kinda) normal English, great relief!
Guess what happened after that? Guess what the fuck happened AFTER THAT? 'CAUSE I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! Seriously, The Priceduifkes tore it up. Literally, both my pants and my shirt got completely torn apart. These guys have more fans than they can handle, so they have to come up with something good every time. This time: movietheatre announcement cardboard boards. Great idea. I got into a tube-like one and fell down and a lot of people fell and was stuck but I really did my best just to give it a rest. People were dancing around like savages, moshing to their infamous Buzzcocks/Gorilla Biscuits-cover and going crazy to their re-performance of the infamous Ramones-medley, first introduced at the release show of She Spells Disaster. Not to mention their infamous original tunes and new songs got some crazy crowd response. Really excited for the new album! Weppa!
The Real Danger got a different crowd, but fuck me, what an awesome band. They played most of their best songs, an Undertones cover that I didn't recognize and they answered my prayers to play their cover of Guest List. I think I went apeshit when they started playing that. I'm pretty sure. Probably yelled something about Ben Weasel and punching girls, but just for fun 'cause Screeching Weasel is one of the best bands in the world (*was). The Real Danger is definitely one of the best bands in the Benelux. Good fun!
I watched The Zatopeks from a distance, as I was tired and had to regain energy. I'm not the biggest fan of the Zatopek boys, but they have quite a few cool songs and their live shows are always great great fun. A lot of energy in this band and an incredible sense to party. City Lights is one of my favourite songs, that's for sure (I don't need your eeeeeeeeyes!), and Mary Lou's always cool. Good show, but for me it was cooling down from previous bands and warming up for Chixdiggit!
What? Wait, what? WHAT? CHIXDIGGIT! PLAYED? WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING FUCK? Oh yeah, they played. And they slayed. They killed it. They killed everything and then brought it back to life with some of the best overall musical tunes ever written. Super nice guys, alot of stage banter and applauding but I dug it (although I'm a dude). I must have clapped my hands about 10 000 times. Give a hand for Chixdiggit!, everybody! I don't think I have ever been as happy as I was there, on the first-slash-second-slash-third row, singing along with KJ Jansen (I'm super gay for KJ Jansen), air-guitaring with Mark from Chixdiggit!, air-bassing with Kepi Ghoulie, air-drumming with the drummer whose name I don't remember. But I remember you, the best friend of a girl I dated. Too bad they didn't remember how to play Going To The Peelers, but they played so many awesome songs that it just doesn't matter. Quit Your Job twice. A Ghoulies cover, maybe 2. I approximately sang along to every word. It was the best show I have ever ever ever seen. Well, I'm just still super excited, but definitely top 5 coolest moments in my life. I may not have been there in Schaffen, but now I can at least say I was there in Houthalen. All my friends will gasp in awe. (Actually, none of them will care 'cause they all listen to radio crap.)

I interviewed KJ afterwards, here's the result:
Q: How does it feel to be in the best band in the world?
A: (flattered laughing) Ohh, get outta here!
BAT BITES

DEECRACKS

MURDERBURGERS

HOTLINES

PRICEDUIFKES

REAL DANGER

ZATOPEKS

CHIXDIGGIT!


I'M ON A PICTURE WITH KJ JANSEN:
  
Pictures: http://lupagraphica.be/

21-03-2011

ZINE IS DONE

This Ain't Noise punk rock fan zine #1 is done!
It's being pressed right about now, and it will be in store tomorrow! (Then I will get it from the (copy-)store and distribute them myself, obviously!)

They are 50 eurocents a piece for an A5 20-pages black-and-white zine with my writings! Isn't that spectacular!
Includes interviews with Mixtapes and Direct Hit!, reviews, random stuff and a downloadable mixtape/-zipfile! Also lousy lay-out and inexperience! Also hopefully no typing errors!
Get siked!

You can get one from me, in Leuven in the week or Kalmthout in the weekend.
Or I can mail them to you.
Or you could hit me up at one of these shows:
25th & 26th of March at Crossbonefest, Houthalen
6th of April in Rockcafé, Leuven
19th of April in Eglantier, Berchem
23th of April at Groezrock, Meerhout


15-03-2011

Hardcore Sundae

Last Sunday, 3 bands from over the waters came to Gent, to play at the Frontline. Cool. I didn't know them too much.

Basement opened the evening. Or they ended the afternoon rather, they played at 5 pm. I was getting kinda into their music, but their set seemed really short. I guess that's a good thing. Cool band, they'll release a full length later this year! Something like melodic hardcore, or hardcore-ish punkrock. They didn't always play as tight, but the show was alright and I got to know another band, which is always a pleasure.

Daylight I had heard (of) before. They were awesome. Really good. Great music, played well, good musicians. Their music is of the same kind as Basement's, I think. They have 2 great EPs out which you should check out. A lot of emotion and passion in their music, I dig that. It came over to the audience, but not really succesfully. The atmosphere for the whole night was kinda "yeaaahhh…". But this band deserves a bit more. Definitely.

Hostage Calm played last. A lot of people left. I guess they weren't great, but they got me head-nodding. Punk rock. They had some good songs, they also had some less good ones. That happens, doesn't it?

I had a fun time, as always.

11-03-2011

Say, sorry, hay

I've been neglecting my blog. I think the First Blogmandent is: Thou shalt not neglect thy blog.
Guess I failed.
I've been busy with creating a printed zine associated with This Ain't Noise. It's called This Ain't Noise zine #1. I'm pretty sure there will be a #2. God knows when.

So, let's just talk about some records I received today.
Firstly, I ordered these records at Kiss Of Death Records distro (which you can find here). It's a great label (featuring bands as Banner Pilot and O Pioneers!!!) and they offer great distributed records for great prices. Be sure to check that out.

One of the CDs I ordered was The Knockdown's "Test/Retest", part of the KOD catalogue. The Knockdown doesn't exist anymore (I think), and only released this album and a split, but they hit the right note with this one. I had forgotten about the record up until the exams of January when I started exploring my iTunes collection. I stumbled upon this again and immediately I was hooked again. Awesome album for fans of Polar Bear Club, Hot Water Music and the likes. Melodic hardcore punkrock, or something like that.
Also, now I finally now the exact lyrics to Graduation Day:
There were some rules I made before my 18th birthday.
The first rule is when I fall in love, it will be forever.
And the second rule I made is that I'd marry the right girl.
And the third rule that I made is that I'd die a rich man.
And the fourth and final rule I made is that I'd stop being afraid to live.
(This was my first interpretation. I needed those 2 words.)

Also from the catalogue, I purchased Witches With Dicks' "Manual". I've heard about them because of their bandname -of course. Hoarse-voiced dudes singing their way through short, loud pop punk/punk rock songs like Off With Their Heads or Rivethead. Melodies where needed, backings where needed, no nonsense.
Great album, definitely a strongly-advised-to-have!

Another one I got was For Science's "Revenge For Hire". I am absolutely in love with their album "Tomorrow's Just Another Day", so I'm pretty excited to have this. I guess it will grow on me up to the same level as "Tomorrow…". The opening track is fantastic, the rest just follows that. The vocals are quite peculiar but I love them. Check it if you're into pop punk, the snotty one but not the generic one (i.e. if you like the Ergs!).

The 4th disc I found in my package was I Hate Myself's "10 Songs". Classic screamo album on No Idea Records. The cd version ironically enough has 11 songs. That's just 1 more song that will tear your soul away. Incredibly emotionally, in fact, musically and vocally/lyrically. Pretty excited to blast it through a stereo, because I don't think a computer mp3 does any justice to the sound intended. Especially punkrock/hardcore/screamo sounds better in better quality through better quality speakers.

I also got the Dangerous Intersections IV 7" (including great bands as Like Bats, Rumsprnger and Barrakuda McMurder, plus the to me unknown Strait A's!) and the Barrakuda McMurder "Slow Crawl" 7", an EP I have listened to a lot in the last months of last year.
Finally I bought Officer Jones And His Patrol Car Problems "Memorial". There's a kinda fun story behind that. Officer Jones AHPCP were a Belgian hardcore band a couple of years ago. Mostly, I bought the record because it was priced at 2 dollars. But, I actually had owned a copy of that record before. I bought it at a show at the Genet Records distro I think. At one point I kinda stopped listening to it so I put it up for sale and I sold it (that was at a Alkaline Trio show in January 2009).
So, seeing it for sale for so few money, I gave it another shot. I'll blast this on my record player assoon as possible.

Okay, pretty lame story, I know.