30-12-2013

2013 was pretty fucking kind of alright

It's the end of the year and here's what I think ruled this year. You can download the songs here.

Fausto - Shin Punch
Hands down my favourite hardcore act of the year. They put out an EP of sorts. I saw them play and it was a lot of fun. Not necessarily serious, but very good. Shin Punch is my jam.

Outline - Final Call
One of the better Belgian releases of the year, Tombs. A couple of well-crafted melodic hardcore songs. I spent a couple days on a UK tour with these guys and they are the coolest. I love their music and I love their persons.

Ed Wood - Talking To The Void
I got an e-mail to review their split with Monolithian early in the year, then saw them play, met them and fell in love with all of them. Amazing band, amazing split, but they've broken up since a few weeks so that sucks.

Jabber - 200 Days
This is without any question the best song of 2013 and maybe ever. I have never loved a song so much as I love this one. Well, perhaps I have, but I am seriously infatuated. If I could ask a song out, I'd ask this one. It makes me feel all sorts of stuff but mostly I just wanna sing along, dance along and play along to it. Incredible. I think this is supposed to be on a split with Mixtapes next year.

Jabber - All I Wanted
Included for reference as to how amazing this band is. The physical release of their EP only saw light of day in 2013 I think, but it was digitally available in 2012, so that's not included here.

Lipstick Homicide - I Hope You Die
They released Out Utero which is incredible, I saw them play twice which was incredible. Tightest live band around, and one the fastest pop punk records of the year. I love singing along to this, cause I hope most people die.

Off With Their Heads - Shirts
My favourite song on Home. Home is incredible.

Mixtapes - Like Glass
I had a serious relentless crush on Mixtapes when they put out Maps and adored everything they put out since. I was less in love with Even On The Worst Nights but Ordinary Silence seems to hit the spot once again. Like Glass is probably the best song they've ever written. Lyrically super strong.

The Murderburgers - My Inner Mental Room
Just come and talk to me about this record. I love everything about the Murderburgers and These Are Only Problems. This song, the last one on it, hits pretty hard. Something with full circles and catharsis.

High Dive - Square One
I got into High Dive because of Ryan Woods of Defiance, Ohio fame, and I stayed a fan because they're amazing. The These Are Days EP is incredible power pop punk. I talked to them about their ideas and they're super cool people. Their set at Fest was infallible.

Boys - Long Walk
I listened to Boys because some band generally suggested them on some social media. They're super good. And this is only a demo. It's been released as a tape by Brassneck/WWSBD? and will be available as 7" through Bloated Kat, plus they self-released a CD-R of it. Buy all of it. It's that good. They're equally cute and bad-ass.

Like Bats - A More Enlightened Kind Of Fly
Like Bats is arguably the best band ever. I was so glad I could see them twice in the US. They put out this new song on some comp this year. I bet their next record is gonna be rad and it's gonna make me want to kill myself. That's good.
Honorable mention for Song Two which accompanied me on many a sad summer night this year.

Be My Doppelganger - The Smartest Kid In The World Takes A Break
They've strayed away from their 3 chord pop punk image with their new record. It's an amazing collection of essentially punk-based rock'n'roll songs and this particular song hits nails on the head as no song ever did before. Artless is a true work of art, and I'm excited to finally actually get it in the mail some time cause that's been dragging on for so long, heh.

UPDATE: I was supposed to include Off The Charts as well, but I forgot to add the file to the mix. Just listen to their record.

UPDATE #2: I totally forgot to include Muncie Girls. But they're like the best band in the world, so I just assumed that was a given.

Additional mentions for the Punchlines (or was that also 2012?), Direct Hit! and Esoteric Youth, who would have been included but I don't have immediate access to MP3 files of their songs right now.
I also listened to True Things way too much in 2013.
I put out an album myself as well, by the way.

Lots of personal stuff happened but nobody cares. At least you shouldn't care. Unless we're friends. Then you should care.

See you on the flip side, babes.

25-12-2013

Study break

I have a Christmas break from school. Ideally I spend all my time right now studying the things I didn't pay attention to in the last few months. And I am doing that. Just at a mediocre pace and level.
The best part about these weeks is I get to spend entire days in my room, drinking coffee, studying shit and listening to records. I get to revisit old records and check out new ones, or records I'vde been neglecting a bit. So let's go over the last few days.

Right now I'm spinning The Get Up Kids' Something To Write Home About. It's on pink vinyl. It's beautiful, aesthetically and musically. There's a case to be made for Four Minute Mile but Something... is by far my favourite Get Up Kids record. A plunge into the pop pool without diverging too much from their early emopunk roots. You know, I love pop music. I love clear-cut, well-produced, high-fidelity music. And that is part of why Something... is my favourite. I can sing along to almost every word, I've seen 'em 3 times now and I am well aware of the fact There Are Rules kinda blows. I remember wearing my way-too-small-but-I-still-wear-it-all-the-time TGUK hoodie to a Shai Hulud show and talking about them to their lead singer. He agreed that Something... is their best record. Why wouldn't he?

There are a lot of records that just pass the table and I put them back pretty swiftly. But those are also of importance. I hadn't listend to The Few And Far Between by Jason Clackley in a big while, but it's a good record, you know? I hadn't heard that Chinese Telephones record for so long, so it's a blast to hop along to those tunes again. But, there's a reason I don't listen to those records all that often. It's cause I have preferences. I have some go-to records and I have some records that are plain better than others so sometimes I just put them on the turntable. That makes sense.

One of those go-to's is Squirtgun's Fade To Bright. Dangerously underrepresented, underrated and underappreciated. Dangerously good. Their lyrics will blow your mind. I only found out recently Matt Hart is actually a poet. So for the songs he wrote, that makes total sense. This record is fantastic start to finish. Mass Giorgini, who plays bass on this and produced/engineered it, actually produced the first Copyrights record that same year (2003) and got those guys to sing on Never Fit. Those are fun facts that I like about music. This album is amazing.

The Dopamines. Everything by the Dopamines is basically go-to material. That basically means I'm not feeling all too shabby, but they help a lot. Vices is their best and I listen to that one most. But I listened to their self-titled this week and it still stands, man.
Similar remarks for the Hextalls discography.

I put on that Good Luck record, Into Lake Griffy, again. I mostly wanna hear both versions of Stars Were Exploding/Bringing Them Back To Life, but every song on it is top-notch musical pleasure. They're amazing musicians (check out everything Matt Tobey (Matty Pop Chart, Abe Froman, stuff with Kimya Dawson) and Ginger Alford (One Reason, Traveling, High Dive nowadays) do. I don't really know what their drummer does.)

Fuck, I re-visited One Year Later and the No Love Can Save Me EP by The Carrier. One of those melodic hardcore bands that were super popular some years back. Rightfully so. Amazing songs, hits hard as fuck.
In that vein, but on the opposite side of the polarity continuum: Death Is Not Glamourous. Holy shit they are good. That last record, Spring Forward, is the best not-youth-crew-sounding youth crew record of all time probably.

After Somethign To Write Home About finishes in a minute, I'm gonna listen to Defeater's Travels, and who knows what's gonna hit the deck? The Dauntless Elite? Mean Jeans? Punch? The Mars Volta? The Toasters? It's gonna be so much fun.

22-12-2013

Jaarboek

Quick note: Yearbook is a very good band.

I saw 'em Thursday at this small student-run bar in Leuven, den Bijsluiter. I missed Coma Commander cause I has radio duty, but I managed to see almost all of Yearbook's set. They're from the UK (England, more precisely) and they play quirky and fun rock music. I couldn't put my finger on it. I was thinking of bands to compare them too, but none came up at the top of my head. That's a good thing. They're doing their thing. Cool set, bought an EP, it's really good.

Uhm, so yeah, check it out if you dig nice and eclectic rock music that sounds like Weezer was put in a blender and made into a nice English smoothie. Whatever.

Thursday night drinks followed. Quite a few. I apparently woke up one of my housemates by singing along to I Hope You Die by Lipstick Homicide at 3:30 am while I was baking a pizza. Sorry. I don't actuyally hope you die. It's a song. It's a really good song

09-12-2013

These 'R' Only Problems

THIS RECORD IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE OKAY IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO THIS YOU'RE MISSING OUT ON SOME AMAZINGLY WELL-CRAFTED AND DEPRESSING POP PUNK MUSIC BY SCOTLAND'S BEST CHUMPS I JUST WROTE LIKE 2 PAGES OVER THE LAST HOUR AND A HALF ON HOW GOOD IT IS AND EXACTLY WHY IT IS THAT GOOD BUT I LOST IT FUCK YOU PITCHFORK

LISTEN TO THESE ARE OBNLY PROBLEMS RIGHT NOW

FUCKING DO IT

BUY IT FROM ASIAN MAN OR MONSTER ZERO

LISTEN OF THE SPOTIFY

LISTEN ON THE INTERNET

GO TO THZEIR SHOWS THEY'RE REALLY GOOD

GIVE FRASER YOUR SPARE CLOTHES

CONSIDER THIS AND THETHINGS IT MUST TAKE TO DRIVE SOMEONE TO WRITE SUCH THINGS DOWN AND GET THE FUCK AWAY WITH IT
if I can simplify things then I think that I might be ok because once you’ve accepted that food is for sustenance and that clothes are for keeping you warm then there’s much less in this world that can do you harm.
ISN'T THAT THE MOST ACCURATE AND SAD THING YOU'VE READ ALL DAY? PORBABLY. LISTEN TO THESE ARE ONLY PROBLEMS FOR THE FULL EXPERIENCE TOTES WORTH IT.

FUCK.


08-12-2013

We came here to live

I've got a few reviews lined up that I kinda need to do BUT LET'S TALK THE COPYRIGHTS' FIRST ALBUM FOR A SECOND.

I came across the song You And I again a while ago via one of all those social media I use. It's a dang tune. So today, I decided to pull out my We Didn't Come Here To Die picture disc. Mine has former guitar player Ken printed on the B-side. Good decision. It's been ages since I've listened to this. I much easier grab North Sentinel Island or Make Sound to rock out to, but I shouldn't forget about this piece of '00s pop punk history.

We Didn't Come Here To Die is, if I'm not mistaken, the first official release by the Copyrights. You know how most bands need a couple albums to sound like "their band". Well, These guys don't. This record sounds as much like The Copyrights as their later efforts do. But this is more basic, certainly compared to North Sentinel Island.
I don't know when they wrote Our Turn (which was released on the Button Smasher EP), but they definitely hit the nail on the head with that one. "No more all downstrokes, no more I-IV-V's." We Didn't Come Here To Die adheres to the ramonescore tradition quite truthfully. Mutiny Pop and Make Sound started to stray away from that. But it's the use of harmonies, the balance of the instrumentarium, the build-ups, the potential energy that's been released throughout the record and the sense for incredibly catchy songwriting that makes this an all-out Copyrights records that is not just "their debut". It's part of the entire catalogue. It's a fitting element in their career.

With an array short, senseless, bursting songs about girls with glasses or people that talk too much and some elaborate, thoughtful tunes about exclusion and whatnot, the record lacks a bit of continuity that seems more present in later records. Of course North Sentinel island had a decisive theme and maybe even concept to it, but I feel like Make Sound or Learn The Hard Way for example have a very consistent sound and song sequence to them, without being fully conceptualized. That is less the case for We Didn't Come Here To Die. Notable fact, I think this record is the only one that has actual love songs/romantic songs on it, being You And I and -possibly- Four Eyes. With that in mind, for me the Copyrights have never been a traditional pop punk band. They've always tried out stuff, either musically or lyrically. Not going too experimental, but trying to stand out just enough.
We Didn't Come Here To Die is definitely not their best output. Some songs are plainly forgetable. Some are boring. Most are pretty good. Some are really good. But I feel like the record is as important in the Copyrights' discography as any other.

I got into the Copyrights around the time Learn The Hard Way was being released. So I basically backtracked to this record from knowing their newer material. I love every one of their records in a different way, but, like I said, they're a very consistent band so I think it's hard to pick a favourite and it's hard to say anything else than that I love the band as a whole.

So I just wanted to put We Didn't Come Here TO Die back into the spotlight for a bit. Seriously though. Very good record. Very good band.

03-12-2013

Dads, why won't they shut up? Dads, they're so fucked up.

The were 3 pretty cool shows on Sunday. Possibly more. On a SUNDAY. All within reach. Antwerp had hardcore/punk covered with Left In Ruins and This Routine Is Hell. Leuven was picking it up picking it up picking it up with a JB Conspiracy headlining show and Ari/Boomboy afterparty. And Mechelen was representing the sadder side of things with some emo by putting on Dads.
I ended up going to Mechelen because of reasons. Band I'd never seen before, possibly good, convenient location, not much trouble.

I had to see Solstice, though. I'm not too big on them. They use unnecessary backing tracks sometimes and I'm generally not stoked on their style of punk rock (pop punk?). They're not bad, per say, but not my cup of tea, per say.

Dads were pretty cool. For some reason I had expected a major twinkle-emo band but they weren't like that at all. Just a guitar player with an insane amount of pedal gear ammo and a drummer with the right amount of awkwardness. They're a pretty popular band in whatever scene they adhere to. They're good. Probably have good lyrics. Sometimes noisy. Kinda like 1994!. Actually, they were a lot like 1994!. Hmm, that's cool.

Cool show. I don't know if I made the right decision. I couldn't hang  with Pie and Sammy in Antwerp, neither with Wouter and Ari in Leuven. But I hung out with Petit and Stijn in Mechelen and got a free beer so that's good.

01-12-2013

Festback

About a month ago I saw this band play, called Worriers. Member of The Measure, Bridge and Tunnel, Caves and then there's Mikey Erg on drums. Who else, right? Total babe-band, obviously. They were really good, and the folks at Lost Youth recs had set up a show for their Euro tour so we checked 'em out at Fest. We were pleasantly surprised.
So this past Wednesday they played at the Carpe Diem in Hasselt. I was stoked. Mikey Erg was playing a solo set too. Great fun.

But, the first band on were Losing Grip. Never heard of them. But they sounded really cool. Kinda Jawbreaker/early-Fake Boys vibes. Melodic, non-pretentious punk rock from the hearts and souls of some dudes from Limburg. I thought it was really good, so I hope I get to see 'em again soon.

Worriers ruled. I was less buzzed and more attentive than I was at Fest, so that only increased the experience for me. Great songs and top-notch, energetic execution. The songs from the new 7" were really good, it was this folksy, intimate song followed by a full-blown catchy tune. Worked like a charm. I'm not too biog on everything they played, but the majority made up for the minority of songs that appealed less to me.

What would a show with a Mikey Erg-inclusive band be without a Mikey Erg set? Probably pretty weird. So Mikey played some of his tunes. Mostly Ergs. A Psyched To Die song. Even a Harvey Danger and Gin Blossoms song (Gert-Jan requested that last one for me, < 3). Loud singalongs to words like "Life is long when you're lonely" "And I could write you the perfect song" and "And you prooooooobably will". The Ergs! were one of the main bands I was into when I was about 17-18 (about the time they broke up), so those songs still mean a lot to me and it feels great just singing along to every word. And when Gert-Jan started singing My Life Hurts by house Boat and Mikey actually played it, the set couldn't have had a better ending. No way, José. Perfect.

Bought a Worriers record and found a Underground Railroad To Candyland record in some distro. Nice. Trainride to L-town.

29-11-2013

Charts

I've seen Off The Charts way too many times already. So why would I waste last Saturday night, going to a show with a bunch of bands I've seen before, and Off The Charts once again? Well, because it's a whole lot of fun.

When I arrived Clear Skies were playing, so I went to get something to eat with Petit. When we got back they were still playing, so I checked 'em out. Hmm.

Coma Commander was next. They're a good band. For real. The Dear Landlord cover was lots of fun, and the mood was getting set.

The Kids' Crusade is a pretty new band from the Netherlands, with members of This Routine Is Hell. Very Jawbreaker-ish, and they closed their set with Do You Still Hate Me? Which is super cool of course. I told them jokingly that "het op niks trok" but they didn't understand that idiom. Nice guys, good music.

On to The Dutch Rudders. I forgot the were playing. V. good! Bouncing Souls cover. Bit of a going nuts to their tunes about drinking, girls and whatnot.

Silver & Gold killed it. As usual. Kinda drunk at the time so I don't know. Probably danced a bunch with Jordi.

Things got off the hook during Off The Charts. They played a very long set and everything was pretty awesome. I loved that they played some of the demo songs, that was super fun. The new record is absolutely amazing. For fans of shouty punk rock with a hardcore edge, Title Fight and Basement and those things. They have a song called Basement which has the same riff as Fading by Basement which is clever. The set was amazing, so much fun, so much love, so much pain afterwards. I hurt my elbow real bad.

Homer closed off but I basically just sat outside cooling off and panting out. Sorry Homer. No hard feelings?

Afterparty was radddddddddd. Drunk people and punk rock music, that rules.

25-11-2013

15 cheeseburgers, please

Friday night I went to Hasselt because one of my favourite current bands were playing there, Muncie Girls. Together with Broadcaster and Off The Charts they'd provide the soundtrack to that Friday night, and they did well.

I loved their show. It was just as I expected, pretty much spot-on. Amazing melodies, drum patterns and bass lines, well structured into mostly long, fun, heartwarming indie/punk rock songs. I couldn't help but sing along to every song and from what I heard after the show they convinced a lot of people there into listening to them. It was super cool seeing them live finally. Best band. Listen to Muncie Girls.

I only saw a bit of Broadcaster in favour of hanging out outside (- many punx points) but they sound really good! It's music I like. Obviously, of course. Best dudes as well.

Off The Charts was rad. Like always. I don't know if I should comment on them anymore. Whoo!

Missed the train, afterparty at Wim's! Beers and cheeseburgers!

24-11-2013

Out of it. Under it.

Wednesday night. I'm sick of life and I need an escape. I go to a show. Everything is cool, for a couple of hours.

I saw the last couple of Solstice songs. Not my cup of tea.

Koji killed it. I thought I was gonna be bored by another singer/songwriter who vaguely found his way to an punk rock audience, but I was wrong. Intimate songs, brilliant songwriting, an amazing voice and a message. I thoroughly enjoyed it, his songs and his stories about the first time he went to Belgium etc.

Slingshot Dakota fucking ruled. One of the coolest shows I've seen recently. A guy smashing the drums and a gal smashing the keyboards. She had a fucking distortion pedal for the keyboard. How cool is that? Awesome show, amazing music, there was a LOT of energy in those two people and it all came out. It was awesome. The drummer kissed his crash cymbal at one point. Cool.

I'm not sure about Into It. Over It. It's objectively good music and a good performance, but I wasn't into it that much? No pun intended. I don't know. It was cool.

17-11-2013

Mister and Miss Givings

New band on the block! Well, on some block. Not on my block. Some block in the south of the UK. Oh, I'm hearing you: What, another band from the UK? Dude, you have a problem. Yes, I have a problem. In fact, I have lots of problems. I'm coping though. Thanks for reminding me.

There's this band called Misgivings. My friend Joe plays in it, and these dudes called Ollie, Will and Pete do as well. They play instruments. You know. Like the Beatles did. You remember the Beatles, right? They played instruments.
This band - Misgiving, not the Beatles, mind you - just released a demo. The amazing thing about this demo is that you can totally listen to it. Here. Have you clicked the word "here"? Okay, good, let's move on.

Misgivings - Demo (2013, DIY)

1. Gift To Nobody
2. Disappear Here




First thing that comes to mind is this Belgian band called Coma Commander. They sound really similar, both vocally and musically. (Expect a review of their new EP soon-ish, by the way!) I guess I could compare Misgivings to loads of melodic punk kind of bands. That's what you get with punk rock. They could fit perfectly on a line-up with Bangers, Dividers and The Living Daylights, for example. That would be a rad show, I'll tell ya!
This demo is a very nice teaser though. Out of the two songs currently available, Dissappear Here is definitely my favourite. It's catchy enough to get stuck in your head but not blatantly uninspired. Also I like the vocal style on this one better. Kinda shouty but with some really cool lines. It has a nice pace and thematically it reminds me of better times. Which is a nice thing to be reminded of. Gift To Nobody is a cool song too, with some dynamic riffage and subtle melodies going on beneath the surface of a anthematic punk rock song.
Cool demo, I'm hoping to hear more of this band soon, preferably live perhaps.

Another band on the "UK bands rule, dude"-list!

16-11-2013

Shirts

Thursday I saw Self Defense Family play. Finally. Missed the last two or so tours, so I was stoked.

We arrived at the start of Dad Punchers' set. It's basically an re-arranged 3/5 of Touché Amoré playing "bummer punk". That's what it says on their bandcamp, and I actually have no better description. I really enjoyed it. They have a split coming up with The Exquisites that I'm really stoked for, because The Exquisites are amazing and this song is gonna be on it. Cool show, not necessarily tight or impressive, but musically interesting. It was the bass player's first time playing with them, I think?

In the meantime I had hugged all my friends I hadn't seen in some time. Awesome. Lotsa cool people at the show, loved it. I also joined Lost Youth Records, kinda. Cool.

Self Defense Family was everything I expected it to be. Long wound out songs, alienation, signature Patrick speeches and movements, and a generally impressive musical performance. They're a special band, something I rarely see or listen to, so that's really cool. Opinionated, creative, unbounded. I suggest you listen to them.

Touché Amoré played a rad set of like a 100 songs. They started with Just Exist and ended with -what else?- Honest Sleep. Kids went bananers and I got drunk. Good show, they're such a good band. I don't know how they do it.

I bought a bunch of SDF merch and the new TA record. Talked to Kai, who I met in London last year, for a bit and it was fun seeing her again. The SDF people were super friendly people, that was cool.

Afterparty in Leuven, I got shitfaced on whiskey and ordered a pizza that I didn't pick up. What am I, an idiot? Yes.

10-11-2013

FEST 12

I'm not gonna do a full review cause I'm lazy and I have to do this thing called actual life for a sec, that sucks.
Anyway, Fest ruled. Let's discuss some stand-out bands.

I saw the Murderburgers 4 times in the States. Every time they reaffirmed they're one of the hardest-working and generally one of the best punk rock bands out there at the moment. It seems they're getting some recognition here and there and getting signed to Asian Man was probably really cool. Love those guys, love those songs. These Are Only Problems is probably my favourite record of 2013, no joke.

Lipstick Homicide. Fucking hell, one of the tightest live bands around.

Saw Like Bats twice. The first time they played like 15 minutes with a bunch of new songs and it was cool but fuck, let me have something dudes. The second time, at Fest, they played a set full of tuneage and I sang my heart out and it was amazing.

I went crazy to Weekend Dads and Corey told me they were probably going to do one last Varsity Weirdos 7", which is amazing cause y'know, Varsity Weirdos are so fucking insanely good, as are Weekend Dads, as are Fear Of Lipstick by the way. But seriously, Weekend Dads. Sooooo good.

I missed Hold Tight!, which I regret. I didn't see Todd C, although he probably played 5/6 sets or so with his various bands. Would've loved to see FYP, but missed them due to drunkenness the first time and due to Hold Tight! the second time, which I in turn also missed. What a mess.

I saw Boys play 2 sets, which was great, they rule so much and you should check them out. I saw Mixtapes for the first time (and probably annoyes the hell out of them) and 2 Masked Intruder songs for the first time.

Knapsack ruled. Dopamines, Mean Jeans, D4 all ruled so much. Well, D4 was really good but they kept blabbering, which is cool but not if you could've played 3 more songs otherwise.

Jabber! Fucking Jabber. They played all the hits, more, and a No Doubt cover (the same song Chumped covered the day before, pretty funny). I've been spinning 200 Days on repeat for the last two months and I'm still not sick of it. Such a good band.

Bunch of other bands. High Dive. Dangit, that was cool. I was pleasantly surprised by Bridge & Tunnel. Fake Boys fucking slayed it. Devon Kay & The Solutions.

Other than the bands: drinks, babes, foods and fun time all the time.

See ya next year, Florida.

16-10-2013

Czechit

I'm not gonna do full reviews but I wanna put the spotlight on some really good recent releases and records I've been listening to a lot lately.

Direct Hit! - Brainless God (Red Scare Records, 2013)
Besides a terrifyingly cool title, Direct Hit! managed to put out a collection of songs worthy of the top 10 lists. It's actually not so much a collection as it is an entirety. Brainless God is a concept album (are punk bands even allowed to do that?) and it's damn well cool one. The world's about to end and there's some shit that still needs to be taken care of. With this apocalyptic theme of crisis desperation and a consistent fuck you/get pumped attitude, Brainless God feels like something really special, and it probably is.

The Murderburgers - These Are Only Problems (Asian Man Records, 2013)
I thought How To Ruin Your Life was their magnum opus, but they out-opussed themselves with These Are Only Problems. The things Fraser sings about ar only problems, but fuck, some of his problems are fucking heavy. Sometimes scarily accurate and identifiable, sometimes even more scarily unimaginable. It's generally a slower, more serious record and I really really really dig it.

Lipstick Homicide - Out Utero (Bloated Kat Records, 2013)
The latest offering from this ferocious  pop punk band. They've been everyone's favourite band for a few years now, and this record confirms that. Faster, louder, more wazzed off and lots of fun. The catchy hooks, snarly vocals and ripping riffs put thius band on the map even more. Really stoked on this.

Mean Jeans - On Mars (Dirtnap Records, 2012)
I'm a bit late to this party (literally), but the Mean Jeans got it figured out. Ramonespunk done right. No frills, no fills, just riffs. Catchy stuff, incredible vocals. Meant to party. There is no way you can't party to this. I've tried, it's impossible.

Welp.

15-10-2013

KNALSELDER

Last Sunday I finally saw my bud Vinger perform with his band Knalselder. It's a dutch rock band. They're amazing.

I had to laugh the entire time. Their lyrics are just incredibly witty or plain tongue-in-cheek funny, or embarrassingly recognisable. Musically really fun as well. Just a great band, without pretention but with a lot of potential.

Just really cool.
Check 'em.

FESTMIX

I'm going to the Fest 12. Whut? Yeah. Who knew that was ever gonna happen? Not me.

I made a mix off some bands I'm really really looking forward to seeing. Of course there's a ton more, but these are the essentials:

1. Jabber - 200 Days
2. F.Y.P - Belittle My Brain
3. Weekend Dads - Forget It
4. The Fake Boys - Active Reactive
5. High Dive - Square One
6. Lipstick Homicide - Isn't It Glorious?
7. Mixtapes - Like Glass
8. Hold Tight! - Tell Your Crush How You Feel
9. Dillinger Four - The Father, The Son And The Homosexual/Single Parent
10. The Dopamines - Business Papers
11. Crusades - Dreamers
12. Unfun - Caroline
13. Tenement - Earwig
14. Like Bats - The Last Catholic In America
15. Masked Intruder - Wish You Were Mine

Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?9j81bqk404neh0a

No artwork cause I'm lazy. Download, put in right order, listen, be super jealous.

13-10-2013

the fuck is a football?

57 North, Friday night, a Begijnhof on the left of me and punk shows at my right.

Let's keep it quick and just say Barney's Ego, Lifeless and We'rewolves all failed to entertain me. It might have been the fact I was really tired from partying the night before, being lovesick from the night before and getting to sleep at 5:30 am the night before, waking up at 11 am for coffee with a friend and going to class til 6pm, meanwhile being anxious about fucking everything. Might have something to do with that, also could have been that those bands just really weren't that good. Up to you, babe.

Coma Commander. I can't remember how I stumbled upon this band. Oh wait, I do, it was the Wellingtons show last year. Now they've released a beautiful EP full of singalong socially conscient drunkpunk songs. They're real good, yo. Also, never stop covering Dear Landlord. Free cara and a destructive mindset from listening to Business Papers on the way to the venue made for some great prerequisites that made me go nuts once in a while. Good show, I didn't buy the EP in favour of beers, but I'm p. sure I'll see them again sometime, and I'll buy it then. Def.
Oh yeah, and Jordi did a "Karelmove" on me. Dang!

Off The Charts headlined. They wore soccer shirts. Cool//gay. Can't decide. The Belgian team is going to Brazil next year. I couldn't give a fuck, but I'm happy for the people who give a fuck. Anyway, the Charts were good, same old same old. Little mosh, little emotion. You could say I was emoshional. Oh snap! Fuck off.

I'm very thankful to the OTC-dudes who were so kind to drop me off on the way home. Goods. The small afterparty (which appeared to have lasted quite a bit) was cool. I remember talking to someone and then hearing Direct Hit! coming up, quit conversation instantly, searching Jordi and getting wild. I also danced around with a large pot of leftover chinese food on my head. That was fun. And we put on F.Y.P.'s Die Young, that was fun.

Jordi Ostir. I love him.

El Vía

Wednesday I went to a punkrock show in Club Kamikaze. I had to play myself as well. Whoo!

After arriving, meeting with frendz, setting up merch and giving away pancakes, Off The Charts started doing their thang. Their thang is a gruffy slow-paced 90s emopunk // '10s TitleFightcore fusion that I've seen far too many times but still gets me going. Getting better every time.

Elway killed it. I'm not convinced on record, and sure, they're a Red City Radio doppelganger, but they put on such a solid live show I couldn't help but be excited, dance around and sing along to words I didn't know. Solid tunes, solid dudes, solid show. I bought their 2 rekerds, both great, but definitely better on stage. Seeing them again at Fest, stoked!

Then I played the afterparty. It was my best show up til now, but that doesn't say much. I dropped my pants to plat "PANTS ARE JUST PANTS", my anti-pants song, and left them of for the rest of the set. I played Parry Gripp covers, Tigers Jaw, and gave Mean Jeans and Nerf Herder a shot but couldn't get past the intros. I sometimes got stuck after the intros for my own songs as well. I bet I could deliver a decent performance if I didn't get drunk, but who wants to see a decent MC Karel performance? That's not the deal.

So I sucked, but it was a lot of fun. Some guys apparently wanted to punch me in the face. Made me feel achieved.
Sold some shirts, very few records & zines, but got rid of all of my pancakes! I'm gonna make pancakes for punkshows more often! It's fun. I'm gonna start a catering business, called PANCAKES FOR PUNKSHOWS. Contact me if you want free pancakes at your punkshow.

Thanks a bunch to Kenny for asking me to play and co-setting up the show. "The only person I both can and can't stand."

07-10-2013

Summer In October part II: AMAI GIJ STINKT b/w GIJ OOK

Okay, Saturday, serious bizniz. Breakfast at Break Point, witnessed a threeway car collision, laughed a good deal and had a good foccacia sandwich.
Elias organised a punk rock quiz, which was really fun, and me and Elias basically have the same taste in music so obviously we won the quiz. Whaddup.

Hangouts at Kroenkel. Met some Scottish dudes, real cool dudes. Ate rum&raisin ice cream. Watched the police being assholes. But let's talk punx.

The Depressants are not really my cup of tea. Sorry dudes. They're all real cool and the songs are okay and all but yeah... I watched a couple songs, then proceeded to drink beer while the organisation was hanging up sheets because the cops said they had to.

The Kimberly Steaks were pretty cool, equally snotty as every Scottish pop punk band ever. Fun show. They have some really good tunes. Nothing out of the ordinary, but you know. It's pop punk or something.

Silver & Gold replaced Buddy Zombie and His Planecrash, which made me both really sad and really happy. I was really curious to see Buddy Zombie and a Summer In October without Kevin Aper is just odd. But I love Silver & Gold and they played a short but good set. Really stoked on the new tunes/record that should come out sometime. Undertones cover as per usual. Best dudes.

I was also really curious to see The Goodluck Party play. I can't remember if I saw their full set or not. It's weird how this Saturday is so blurry. Was it the beers or the fact that so many bands played? Maybe I spent too much time outside. Anyway, this Goodluck Party sounded really good. And they had funny clothes. Hawaiian shirts and such. Because it's Summer. In October. Y'know.

Big Eyes was awesome. Such a good band. They didn't look too enthusiastic, but they played a rad set, so I'll take it. They're definitely something different than all the pop punx and 3-chord madness, but it was impressive and Kate is an amazing singer and songwriter. They have a record called Almost Famous, which is really good and also the title of Pie's favourite movie. He told me to see it, so I'm gonna do that this week.

I saw one Richie Dagger song and thought "wow, this is really cool" and then I went outside. What the fuck, brain? Have you gone insane? That was pretty lame! I'm all outta rhymes now.

I skipped Reproach because I didn't feel like seeing Reproach and I was getting dating advice from the dudes in Direct Hit! It was hilarious. And I kinda wanted to save some energy forp the sequence PDS-Direct Hit-Yum Yums, which was bound to kill me. Reproach was probably really good. They hate you.

Priceduifkes apparently started out with a Hives cover, which I forgot about already. The rest of their set was amazing, as expected World War III broke out again and the place got destroyed. There is no way I can describe what happens during these PDS shows. It's kinda of like magical. Magicool. Even live videos don't really capture the vibe. They played 2 new songs I think, both of which sounded really promising. It's alright so. Also Brutal Knights, Frogball and D4 covers. Everything kapot. Fuck.
My kids will hear about this stuff.

The sound didn't go over well for Direct Hit!, but their energy and the quality of their songs did! Fuck you, get pumped, and all that. I got pumped alright! Their drummer is insana and their new bass player was inches away from doing a full splits. That was rad. The new songs rule, the old songs rule, the new record in amazing. Both musically as conceptually I am kinda blown away by it. So, solid show, lots of fun, lots of shouting. They closed with We're Fucked, and well, we were fucked. Awesome.

The Yum Yums were the last band on the schedule. I only know their Singles 'n' Stuff record, but that's really good so let's dance, right? Right! They played a lot of songs, and I ended up knowing half of them so that's cool. They also covered Chewy Chewy, Bird Dance Beat and Walking Out Of Love, next to playing gems like Be With Me and Girls Like That. Whoo! I danced my butt off. If I was a native American, my name would be Dances With Babes, cause that's what I do. Babes of both sexes, obvi. That's all I wanna do in life. Just dance with babes. It's cool.
Anyway, The Yum Yums were great, I was really stoked on seeing them. Thanks.

Afterparty started out with Banana Brain and ended up with Gainesville. Everything in between were awesome singalong punk and hardcore tunes that made for an awesome party. Piekpries rules. I tried to fancy-dance but failed miserably. I don't even know how to follow. I'm a mess. But I like dancing. I really like it. That's probably why I was exhausted by 3 am and went to sleep instead of partying at The Swing. Punk rock taking its toll.

I woke up and lots of body parts hurt. I cleaned up the dorm room a bit cause it was a beercan covered mess and tried to flush the toilet but that didn't work out cause there was no water left. Yikes.
Went home, noticed someone couldn't help drawing a swastika in my neck and felt a profound post-SIO blues. Listened to Be With Me by The Yum Yums on the train and got home sad and happy.

I love your faces. Don't judge me.


Summer In October part I: WIE ZIJDE GIJ EN WAAR KOMDE GIJ VANDAAN?

First things first: I want to apologize for everyone who I have hindered or annoyed the past weekend. I didn't mean to. Maybe I did, who knows. I hope you're a minority though. I'd like to paraphrase my friend Siebens who said I'm probably an intelligent dude but I ruin that by drinking and acting like an idiot. He's probably right. I like acting like an idiot just as much as I like being kinda sensical.
Second things second: I, for one, had the best weekend since a whole god darn while. Thanks Lenny, This Shittown, JH Kroenkel, Skintight recs, PDS, and everyone who helped them out. I love your faces.

Anyway, I told Lenny I was going to write a good review, so let's go. Jelle Gommers told me it should be fairly easy and I should just write "biejestig", but maybe people want to read some more? (A: no, they don't.)
So Friday the festivities started. Got off the train, met up with some buds, went to withdraw money and eat a burger and a cervela, finally arrived at the Kroenkel to drink beer and get ready to see The Dutch Rudders.

I love The Dutch Rudders. I love their music, and I love their faces. They were one guitarist short cause he had a soccer match. Lame, of course. Their set was sloppy. But I like their songs, so I didn't really mind. I absolutely love the Black Holes EP, so obviously sang along to most of those songs about drinking too much and liking girls and such. They played LJD which is the best song ever (One Direction even made a song about it) and that hardcore-y tune which is pretty wild. They finished off with Falling Apart, upon which I thought they probably deserve more response, but it was still 8 pm and everybody was still on the sober end of things. Good band though. bought a shirt, it looks like an Amenra shirt and has the words "life just disappoints" on it, which is the reason I bought it.

No Bones played next. One of the few bands I had never heard before. Apparently they're from Canada and are touring Europe to promote their debut EP Belongings. That's dope, they're like "whatever, we only have one 7" but why shouldn't we fucking tour Europe now?" The 7" is really good, by the way, I ended up really liking their band, sounded like Polar Bear Club and Shook Ones mayhaps. They played a Jawbreaker cover, which is obviously a really good thing to do. The song was Do You Still Hate Me? and lotsa peepz sang along to it. In short, they put on a more than decent show. Nice dudes as well.

The Lemonaids from Scotland also missed a guitar player, maybe he was a the same soccer match? I don't know. Anyway, Lemonaids rule, they're the band with the most attractive Murderburger. Also they're guitar player who was present was a total Mambo look-a-like, that was funny. The Lemonaids stand for fun, summery and light-hearted tunes, so when they started out with I Wanna Luau (With You-au), the tone was set for a set of surf punk goodness. Dances were done, songs were sang along, high fives were exchanged and a good time was had. They played a Captain Kate cover (Easy Come, Easy Go). Cool shiznit.

Then it was the time for The Bat Bites to conquer the world. They came up wearing bat costumes. They played tunes. They're the best band in the world and I wanna marry all of them, especially Florian. Amazing set, including their own hits, new songs, and covers of Masked Intruder and other bands (I don't remember, don't judge me). I assume I had a really nice time and that's important, right. Devon from Direct Hit! told me the next day that the bass player apparently got lost for a good minute at the start of some song and just stood there like a champ figuring out how to play the song. I don't remember it happening but I love anecdotes like that.

The Rawönes closed up the night. They're a Ramones cover band. One of the best. Obviously this was a major success at a festival where a lot of Ramones-inspired bands play. Initially I wasn't even stoked to see them, but as soon as they started the crowd, including me, just started to go go with the pogo and it was so much fun. The stelist was like an actual Ramones show, and the encore seemed to last as long as the actual set did. They did a perfect reenactment of the perfect band, my all-time favourite band. Dangg.

Siebens spinned records at the afterparty and I loved that because I love him. I did spend a lot of time hanging out outside though, It's nice to have these kinds of weekenders, where you see all your friends again and meet so many new people. I love that. I love all your faces. I love hanging, laughing, discussing, hugging and kissing friends. But that's just me.
Went for a late night kebab which was the best thing ever at the time. Back at the dorm room there was this girl Isabel, and no one knew who she was, where she came from and what the hell she was doing there, but she saw Jordi's balls and offered nothing in return. Super weird. I was drunk so we joked around with her and a couple minutes later she left. Weird.


SUMMER IN OCTOBER

biejestig

30-09-2013

Buoys

I've been listening to this band for a couple of months, and this past week I really made the click and it's been on really frequent rotation now. I first got to know them through a Facebook status update by this band called Jabber, who said they were going to be on Bloated Kat Records. As Bloated Kat only releases incredible bands, I checked out their demo and well, now I'm writing about it.

Boys - demo (DIY, 2013)

1. Sundae Skool
2. Turn The T.V. Off
3. Long Walk
4. New Car


Boys are not just boys. There's 2 girls and 2 boys in this band. There's Maura and Megan, and Zach and John. But actually it's Zach, Megan, Maura and John. Or Megan, John, Zach and Maura. They're a band. They're p. good.
They released this demo with 4 songs and these 4 songs are so fun and good and nice to listen to. They are songs that would want to listen to with everyone in the world. Well, not everyone, cause most people suck. But with everyone who is cool. Sundae Skool starts with the giddiest of riffs and the intro lyric "I'm tired of being pessimistic". That sounds like a positive message, right? The songs rely on fun, solid pop punk riffs and strong personalilty-induced lyrics. There's this bass part 'round the chorus of New Car which I can't help but find silly (when the bass plays the riff an octave higher), other than that I am totally with this musically and it is definitely an approach to music and songwriting that I would like to do. (I don't know why I find that part silly, cause it's not something out of the ordinary or anything...)
But to illustrate my point, listen to Turn The TV Off and try not to go along with that chorus. It's as infectious as zombie bites. Which is an appropriate comparison, I think. If you wanna sing along, you may have to practice breathing properly. (Weird advice.) Megan's voice is typically kinda snotty and sounds very confident (weird description).
My favourite track on the record is Long Walk, I mean: "I think I understand what it's like/To feel the absence of a friend/You seek solace in a bottle/Speak dramatics through your pen/Maybe tonight you can stay sober/But by morning, you'll forget". That sounds like something I can very much and very much not identify with. Relatable and personable (is that a word?). As if the song didn't start good enough, they end it even better. I know a review isn't worth much if I just say "just listen to it" all of the time, but hey, in the end that's what you gotta do. Just listen to that outro bass riff into the "Watch my mouth slack your jaw/Yeah, I've heard it all before/I am ruthless with intent to leave you crying on your floor"-part and tell me you don't wanna see this live and sing along as loud as you can, dance your ass off and jump in the air of excitement/relief. It's kinda cathartic.
This demo is wack bizniz, peepz. If you're into babely pop punk, listen to Boys (among others, hit me up). If you're into normal pop punk, also do that. If you're into the defending of pop punk, listen to Boys and realise how silly Man Overboard sounds.

Also, I am going to see this band in New York with Lipstick Homicide (more babes) and the Murderburgers (short Scottish dudes). My life is v. awesome.
Falling in love's easy.

29-09-2013

The Story So Sub-Par

I KNOW. I haven't been updating. Whaddayoucare? Do you even read this blog? Do you? Oh, thanks. That's cool.
I met a dude this week whose band I didn't necessarily like and he had read my review on the blog and kind of agreed maybe? Pretty funny. He was a really nice dude.

Anyway, I do stil go to shows and the last one I attended was a sold out (whut?) show for the Seahaven/The Story So Far show. Off The Charts was the support. It was like 11 euros. I had verry little idea of who those two headlining acts were prior to Tuesday. I still don't really.

Off The Charts are on a roll. Playing better shows every time, releasing an album soon, playing songs that are really good. They have it all. Seriously, those new songs sound really good. There are some main contemporary influences such as Basement and Title Fight, spiked with a typically 90s vibe coming from bands like Leatherface. Catchy tunes with interesting song developments. Look out.

I saw the first few Seahaven songs, which were okay, but I got bored so decided to head to the bar and hang/drink beer. Probably not the best decision, but I was fine with it.

I saw The Story So Far from the back, hanging with my West Flanders buds. The Story So Far is one of the, if not the, most popular pop punk bands these days. Wait, I mean "pop punk" bands. They're the kind of pop punk that, in my opinion, shouldn't be called pop punk. For one, it's not really poppy. If anything, these bands look more like a soft hardcore band than anything. Anyway, The Story So Far, or TSSF as the cool kids call 'em, is huge and kinda good, just way too generic in a sub-subgenre I'm not too stoked about. Crowd was insane though. And young, side-note, many young peepz came out on a Tuesday night, which is cool.
Anyway, semi-boring show, I talked to Dimi about how much I want to see Hold Tight! at Fest this year and he whole-heartedly agreed. That's cool.

See you in the pit.

24-09-2013

Hey You Guys

Quick post to tell you I saw Hey You Guys 2 weeks ago and they were fucking incredible.
Jare described it as "de rock 'n roll en kolder van The Hives met de energie van Fights And Fires, gemixt met een beetje Arctic Monkeys en Rage Against the Machine. NEIG!"
He's totes right. Check 'em out. Crazy show as well.

11-09-2013

not

You might remember how I was absolutely in love with this band Not On Tour two years or so ago. I totally was. And then I missed them on their 2nd Euro tour, but they came back for a 3rd time and I caught them again... twice! I hadn't listened to their music in ages, but I totally fell in love again.

First night was in Heist-Op-Den-Berg. I missed Snowbound. Sorry.

Support by Generation 84, who put on a solid show but I think Teun had some vocal issues or something. Anyway, it was alright, not my favourite band but good enough to keep watching their show.

Not On Tour played and as I said, I immediately remembered why I loved them so much. The combination of melody, speed and a to-the-point songwriting results in a catchy symphony of 4 Israelian peepz with a love for Descendents and Black Flag, or something. The new songs sounded equally great, if not better, so naturally I bought the new record, All This Time. The entire set ruled, they played a Bryan Adams cover (guess which one...) and generally played a nice show. Whoo!

Second night in Gent, made possible by Vera who let me crash on her floor, thanks! It rained as fuck so that was a downer but the rest of the night was... an upper?

I caught the last bit of Timmy Hillfire's set and although it sounded kinda sloppy, it was p. interesting and okay-sounding. Might have to check in on this.

Dead Convicts were much better than what I expected from the bandname. Straight, no-frills 80s hardcore punk. They were really great, played a Ramones cover (Havana Affair) and got some ska-influencage going which worked quite okay. Might have to check in on this too.

Retarded Fish came all the way from Slovakia so what the hell, let's just dance and act like nutcases for these dudes. Musically very strong, cool melodic hardcore/skatepunk kinda deal. Show was a lot of fun. Good band, good crowd.

And a second Not On Tour performance, yay! It might preliminarily be noted taht Valer played the entire set in his boxers cause he was the only one not wearing a short (short). Other than that, the guys and gal did good. Another great set, different than the night before, that's cool. More dancing going on, the crowdsurf and mosh and what crazy ideas anyone had. Fun fun fun.

Thanks again Vera for setting up the show and giving me a place to sleep. Slept like shit but whatevz. Said goodbye this morning, hopefully they'll come back next year. Love.

EDIT: Also superthanks to Mathias, who I don't really know but may have met that night (?)  but who obviously is also a supercool dude for setting up the show as well also!

09-09-2013

Bring on the beers.

Have you heard of Ashes? It's a cool band. They released a cool record. I bought it. It's worth the buy. Worth the money. Worth to review it, maybe...
So HERE IT GOES.

Ashes - Cursed (Perspective Records, 2013)

A1. Push
A2. Keep It
A3. Cursed
B1. Final Breath
B2. Wounds
B3. The Swarm





This has been a highly anticipated EP for me. I fucking love Ashes in every way possible. I love the band, I love the music, I love the people and I love their record label. Let's give it up for Perspective Records, who have released some really good hardcore records this year. Good job on this one too. Simple and clear packaging, a downloadcode for the nerds, great artwork (who made this?) and a choice between a pretty white and green splatter 7" vinyl or a nice digipack with a CD with Stijn's face on it. I think i made a wise choice by going for the vinyl, although the inside still has a picture of Stijn's face on it. Dang it.

Enough joking around, as white and green this record may look, it sounds nothing like white an green. Sounds like grey and maybe red, and black, and other dark colours. Ashes is a typically dark band, I think. I mean, they can be, they sometimes are. One thing Stijn once told me and is noticable on this EP, is that his vocals are cleaned up a bit. If you compare the vocal recordings to the demo songs, it's slightly less brutal. Still fierce as fuck though, and you can actually understand the lyrics better, which is cool. To a further extent, p. good job on the recording/mixing/mastering. Every part of the band comes out of his shell quite well and harmoniously.

Now, let's get to the songs, huh? I'm always nagging about stupid stuff when the songs are of course the most important things of the record. Cursed is a very Ashes-like record. I think it's getting to a point where the songs are recognizably theirs. Starting with the slow-paced intro-esque headbanger Push, you get the sense of groovy, gloomy, sincere and hard-hitting hardcore that these dudes do. Getting into Keep It, which was also on the second press of their demo, things get somewhat faster. Ashes heavily rely on riffs and rhythm patterns and I think they're a very 'punk' band to be a hardcore band. There's no typical breakdowns with the intention of live mosh. No, the energy in the songs should be enough to get a crowd going.
Stijn's vocals still get to me, especially on Cursed, where he seemingly releases a lot of negative energy. I'm not all for negativity, but a lot of great music comes from a negative place/state of mind. Cue Cursed, the title track. Equally groovy, with a sick bass riff driving the song and a high-ended outro that's a nice symbiosis of what they're capable of as a band. I'm the son of a cursed one/it took so many fucking years/before I renounced your name. I have no idea what that means, but you can feel it. Feeeeeeeel it.

Side B starts off with my favourite track, I think, on the rekerd. Final Breath. From the intro/verse riff on I'm captured. The contrast of the 2 measures of higher, more melodic chords to the introduction of the drums and bass and the lower, more stereotypically hardcore riffing is really cool. Should get me pumped, or stoked, or psyched at a live show. It should. Vjee's riffs are generally really cool and, as I said, they're proper riffs. The tempo change mid song is fitting, circle pit material. Build ups that pay off into cathartic songs of desperation and anger. At least, that's what I think the dude's singing about. I wouldn't really know for sure, though. He seems quite displeased with the world. Can't blame him, right?
Same theme continues in Wounds, for which they made a promo video. It's a catchy song. Love the drums on this one, they create a cool, dark-ish vibe for the tune. this world ends tonight/there is no hope. Yeah, told ya. Groovy shit. The last song on the recording is another groovy one. That's what I mean with "an Ashes-like record": it's consistent in sound. It has its proper qualities. If you like them, you'll probably like all or most of their songs. If you don't, then you probably won't like 'em at all. Anyway, cool back-and-forth vocals on this track, cool bass loops and a generally cool track to end a record on.
Fade out with feedback and we're clear.

Now give me that beer, love.

Al die willen te kap'ren varen...

Yesterday I went to a show in Den Eglantier in Berchem, as you might now, arguably my favourite venue in Belgium. It was a basement show, so all the better.
Two bands played, early Sunday show, and I was supposed to be there on time but I ran into my brother on accident, who I hadn't seen for a while, so I had to choose between grabbing a beer or checking out Punchline Hunting Season. I'm sorry, Punchline Hunting Season.

So I got to the venue, and I brought a "distro"/box of second hand cds/7"s. Got rid of a few of them, to the guy travelling with I Not Dance, that's cool. I'll put up a list of the rest if anyone's interested.

Then I Not Dance played. They were rad. Loud, bearded, distorted, screamish, growlish, Austrian, really cool. One of those bands that just blow you away with their live shows, y'know? Incredible. Check 'em out if you like Loma Prieta or something.

The basement has been repainted and has some nice Adventure Time grafitti going on, which is awesome. Fav venue +1.

I'm a "musician"

Last Thursday was a big day for me. I was "booked" to "play" a "show". Yes, me, MC Karel, worst rapper in the werld. With PJ Bond, one of the best songwriters in the werld. That's cool.
For those who don't know, I'm a rapper in my free time. It's not necessarily good but it's super fun and some songs are kinda alright I think. mckarel.bandcamp.com

Anyway, I worked til 5pm, then biked the fuck home cause I only had 20 minutes to get home, pick up my stuff and catch my train so I'd be there on time. I caught my train, sweating heavily cause I biked/ran fast and it was like 30 degrees outside. Fuck. But I got on the train.

OBVIOUSLY, because I'm an idiot, I took my train on time but screwed up by making a wrong transfer. So I ended up in Hasselt an hour later than expected, but with my bud Domien to keep me company on the train and walk to the Carpe Diem, bar of the night. No prob, though, cause nothing was set up yet. Ok, whatevz.
Now get this, I arrived and there were actually a lot of people. Sick. Elias, Rak, Jordi, Benji, Seppe, Wim, Laura, Wouter, Werner, fucking Dennis, Joëlle, Jens, and some other peepz. Radical.
I set up merch with help from Domien and sold some stuff, which was v. cool. People were saying I should begin so I talked to the barman who confused me a lot. Anyway, everything got set up, I tried to help moving stuff but the dude yelled at me so I stopped. Whatevz.

After the technical stuff was done I got on stage. Get this, a fucking stage. I wasn't really nervous but not really in my comfort zone either. Anyway, I got over it, introduced myself and started the first verse of Introducing MC Karel (I play only the first verse cause that's the only one that matters). Rest of the set: William Schimdtson, I Am Edgar Allan Poe, Monoamourous, I'm Not A Person Person, Hail Odin, Feel Like Shit/Die Like Shit, Maybe Women have Rights Too and I'm King Crucial.
I played a hundred mistakes, breifly forget my lines 3 times or so and got out of breath/stumbled over my words a couple times too. And I bumped my head into the mic. I got the solo on Feel Like Shit/Die Like Shit kinda right, a solo that made some people crack up apparantly and rightfully so. It was alright I guess, it's not meant to be perfect (or even good, really), but it's supposed to be entertaining and I think I entertained some people. That's cool.

PJ played next and he yet again killed it. I got shivers multiple times. His set was similar to last week's, but not entirely and it's always a pleasure seeing him play his heart's songs. When he sings "are you lonely, love?" I almost lose it. Fucking hell, pure chizz.

Yoink, great night, was nice to see PJ again and to play with him was such an honour. Thanks a bunch Roel for setting it up, you're the bestest.

'ngover

I've spent last week watching iCarly episodes and hangin' around at places. I pressed my latest zine, which you should buy, and officially released my MC karel tape. And that's why this blog has been neglectished.

Anyway, let's scroll back to Monday, quick show at the rockcafé.

First band was Rage Inside. I don't know, I didn't really like it. Two similar vocalists, generic guitar riffs, not enough rage. Maybe next time, babes.

ILLS. Holy mothershit. Solid band. Coming from Finland, they sure had a metal-vibe going on in their brand of the 'core. Solos and some heavy metal-inspired riffage gave the whole band a unique flavour and it worked quite well. Very 'Scandinavian'. Very 'cool'.

Grim was up on the next, and they're also influenced by metal, more on the death metal side of things though (genre Obituary, Death, Morbid Angel). They're cool, very heavy and very 'grim'. Possibly the heaviest band in belgian hardcore right now? Possibly! Kids are into it, I'm kinda into it. I like when they say "THIS WORLD IS GRIIIIIIM" and everyone goes apenuts. New 7" Seeds Of Love out in November or something, new tunes sounded good.

Abyss AD, from Germanee, closed off the night but I think I got my 'klopke' so I couldn't focus or even be damned for shit. They were probably good but I just couldn't bring myself to it. Truth be told, it was all kinda 'safe' to me. But who am I? Apparently an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about.

Then I went home, cause, as I said, I was tired, and as you might have read, I had a rough weekend.

04-09-2013

likt men ballen, Olen

Wowie. You have no idea how my weekend was. Maybe after this post you'll have some idea, but it'll still be vague. In fact, that's exactly how I remember it, a vague succession of things. Was there even a weekend? I don't know. Maybe it never happened.

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Show at the Rockcafé. Dylan's birthday show. I don't really know Dylan, but I sure as fuck celebrated his date of birth.
Drinking beer with the Rak. I saw King's Blood, which was okay I guess. I don't know anymore. Krikke Get Wise's brother is in this band, and he like to jump-mosh. I think it was cool.

Saw some Two Minutes Hate songs. Especially the one where he does that famous line about world war. I met their drummer Arno some time ago and he's a cool dude, also good drummer. Band is okay, reminds me of similar acts like Dead End Sin maybe. What do I know.

Saw a minute of Hawser, don't care. I basically spent the night drinking beer with Rak and other assorted buddies. A friend of mine, as Rak later told me, was pretty buzzed up on something and he was talking a lot. I think that's cool, cause I don't have to say a lot. But it didn't strike me until Rak told me. We met a Greek and Dutch dude (Erasmus students maybe?) who were whack. Whack.

I moshed to Ashes cause I love them. New record is really good, I bought it now and it's seriously really good. Show was cool, drunkmosh and singalongs. Frandz.

Skipped Get Wise in favour of beer. Up the punx. But they're a p. cool band, they're on tour now so you should check 'em out. Maybe.

Lotsa beers. Hung out with Rak and this girl Nele, who was supposed to crash in my couch (as was Berre Ashes, but we lost him, sorry dude!). Me and Rak talked this girl Alicia with who Nele went to school and she was apparently stupid or something so we said something stupid to her. I have no clue what. She wasn't pleased. Whatevz, babes. Careless. Drunk. Other cool things probably happened but fuck if I know. We went home, had chicken nuggets and slept til 12. Slept like shit.

SATURDAY:
I promised Koen Sex Toys to come and see their set at Skatefest, but they already played at 13:30. So when I got up at 12, I actually did my best to catch the bus to Olen. DON'T GET ME STARTED ON OLEN JUST YET. Olen, Skatefest. Bus was right on time, I went to get some cash cause I knew I was gonna spend it.

I managed to catch 3 Sex Toys songs, one on my way to the bar, the next one dedicated to me (their cover of Gay Bar, fuckwads) and the last one, a new one of a year old. Cool.

The next band I wanted to see played at 7pm, although there were a few cool bands before that as well, Like Homer and Get Wise. Anyway, back to the start. Since I had no bands to see and guts to fill with alcohol, I got another beer. I ran into Werner, who I had met the week before, and we hung out. He's old but he's a really nice dude. He's "with it" with punkrock and such and it was really nice talking to him. He also has a blog and writes for rockblog. Naturally, he's my arch rival, but it's okay. We're cool.
Around the same time my best friend in the world also arrived and he had beer in his car so we decided to drink beer, get him cigarettes in Olen (suck) city and we met Jelle and Nicolas OTC there. This would mean the night was gonna be cool. Disastrous, yes, but cool.

Back at the fest-site Two Minutes Hate played, again. We've discussed that. Beer.
I wanted to see Think Ahead cause someone told me they were cool, but for some reason we went back to Olen and kinda missed them. Whatever. I'm only here for the scenepoints. Why should I watch bands? Beer and scenepoints, all I need. Beer and scenepoints, that's my deal.

I saw Get Wise this time, but only half. I spent most of my time hanging with the punx at and around the bar. Same for Generation 84. Probably the same for Homer. I think I ate a vegan thing during Homer. Homer's cool. Same for the Headshots. I must've been pretty flipped up at this point.

WELL YEAH I WAS. I think I even got to my second round of jetonnekes by then. Perfect opportunity to go watch the Setup and mosh the living shit out of... myself? I don't know, I love The Setup so I decided I'd go and show the pitfuckers who's the boss!!!!!! Obviously, I'm not the boss, The Setup is. They played a good set, I was really stoked on the setlist. Full of hits. They did good, as usual. I put on my crucial shoes and did this weird thing where I'm moshing but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Crowd reaction was underwhelming, but it was fun.

Tech-9 and Pay No Respect are bands. For some fucked up reason.

But I was stoked for The Connection! 60s rock and roll revival with Geoff Useless. I don't necessarily adore the band, but I do adore Geoff Useless and I'll take any excuse to jive to tunes like Stop Talking and Crawling Out The Wreckage Of A Saturday Night. Yes, admittedly, those are the only tunes I recognized. I hope I've danced with babes, but I think I mostly danced with Bram. Which is good enough. Good band, fun show.
Talked to Geoff after the show, he's one of the people I really admire musically (mostly for the work on Let It Go), and I told him that The Guts are/were way better. But he's cool and nice.

After the hardcorekids could stretch their limbs one last time to the tunes of First Blood, it was time for Off With Their Heads to play. Mind you, I was"in pretty rough shape" (as Ryan Fischer would inform me the next day) and I actually don't remember much. But they undoubtedly played a great set of great songs  about bad things. I remember that the set was very long, an hour or so. I kept thinking they were playing their last song, and then they'd play another. Anyway, people danced, swung their fists in the air and sang along to wanting to die, wanting to go home and feeling like this every night. The uge.

Then we went to the bar for more beers. I got behind the bar and got a beer, then other assorted friends found their way behind the bar. I hung out with Matthias, who was a dude volunteering there, he was v. cool. They gave away free coke, which is cool. We tried to get free beer but they proved to be more suspicious than expected. Anyway, great start to a great after-party. After a while of hanging out at the fest-site, a couple of my budz, who were crashing in Olen, decided to head to this loserville and go to a bar.

SATURDAY NIGHT - the following has nothing to do with Skatefest, punk rock or anything, but it's a funny/fucked up story.
(listen to this)
Bar of choice: Muziekcafé 't Oor. Don't go there. Don't ever go there. Narrowminded, racist, chauvenist folks. We didn't know that, so we took a chance in this seemingly cosy and cool bar.
We arrive at the bar and for some reason I find myself in the middle of a conversation with two girls, with no idea why I'm talking to them. Possibly because one of them was wearing an pyjama (although she said it wasn't). See, that's how ridiculous this bar was. People could be wearing PJs and thinking it was fashion. The other girl was really angry/psychotic. But they were probably the funnest people to hang with in the entire bar. Anyway, we ate their food, played nagelke-klop and jerked around and everybody started to dislike us for some reason, the #1 reason being that we we're fucking around and "we were not from there" and we were folks from the punk festival. Whatevz.
Next thing you know, 2 tables (stacked with glass) "fall down", people got more pissed at us, 2 of my buds get kicked out. The owner, who already reprimanded us for no fucking reason whatsoever, got really mad.
N: You have 5 minutes to leave!
J: Oh good, I can take another beer then!
Holy smokes, great reply. The rest of us stayed behind and chatted with inappropriate old dudes, inappropriate young dudes and those girls, who were apparently best friends since that night. That's Olen for you, I guess. The young dudes thought we were annoying those girls and they got jealous and even more pissed. Dude in orange shirt had a bad temper, man.
Then 'one of us' said something he shouldn't have said, and the addressee totally overreacted by headbutting him, causing a pretty nasty gap in his eyebrow. WHAT THE FUCK OLEN? See, I'm not saying we were on our best behaviour, but at least we didn't cause harm to anyone, we didn't intentionally evoked a fight by FUCKING HEADBUTTING SOMEONE. People are whack. And then this orange shirt fatzoid started yelling and violently pushing us outside of the bar. I guess they were tired of our shenanigans? Well, I was tired of your inability to handle situations, your lack of relativization and your chauvenist stance towards us the entire night.
Some dude: I'm gonna kick your teeth out!
Me: What? Don't do that, I need my teeth, man.
Fucking lunatics. There was this one dude, a young guy but a real sweetheart, I think he was also at Skatefest and I danced with him during the Setup (but I could be wrong, could be someone else). And he was the only dude in the entire place who was at least a bit considerate and able to handle shit. Jelle was about to lose shit but I think I sobered up enough to drag him the fuck out of there.
Seriously, fuck them. Again, I'm not saying we did nothing wrong, but they're fucking idiots. Shit was pretty fucked, so we went to the parking lot to find the other guys drinking some bottle of wine they found. Hehe. We discussed the situation and concluded Olen fucking sucks and I hate the place. I'm generalizing because I don't give a fuck.
Went to sleep when the sun started coming up, slept for shit, everything hurt, no regrets.

SUNDAY:
Guess how I felt? Yep, like shit. Woke up in the passanger seat of Jordi's car. The other fellows in the fellowship all left to do shit and I stayed behind with Jordi. We then had hot, vigourous fries in De Nieuwe Wannes, a snackbar conveniently situated next to café 't Oor. Wannessaus, not recommended.
After a while we met up with Domien en Wouter to go to Middelburg, in Zeeland. Off With Their Heads played there with The Real Danger and some other bands. Whoo!

The first band, Bad Temper, wasn't really convincing. So I hung out outside. It was actually pretty chilly.

Pizza.

Missed Scallywags. Didn't see Sweet Empire. The Real Danger played a good set but those Dutchies are weird. And I still didn't feel top notch. Some new songs, some old ones, then some skinheads and some weird dude who threw a beer bottle at an amp and tried to crash the monitors or something? Whut whut.

Off With Their Heads played again, this time I was sober enough to actually enjoy the show. Started off slow and after 3 songs their amp broke down.
After an ironic "Hey, we're professional musicians." they re-started and things got pretty cool after all. Lots of dancing, mostly Belgians actually. Peukie did some acrobatics and everybody seemed to have the best of times to the tunes of the worst of times. They played a really long set again, could've just skipped the "slower" songs actually, but okay. If they want to be a professional band, that's okay. And their catalog is big enough to afford 1-hour sets. Highlights for me were the songs from Hospitals (Your Child Is Dead, god fucking damn), Janie and I Am You. Best songs. Angry songs.

Gonna see them again at Fest, stoked as fuck.

Got home tired as fuck and I felt old and broken. But also happy.
Mom: How was your weekend?
Me: Oh, you know. Cool. Had fun.

03-09-2013

ZINE NINE

I have fully recovered from a keh-razy weekend and have completed This Ain't Noise zine #9

It looks... like this:
It has 28 PAGES.
In BLACK AND WHITE.
On A5 FORMAT.
And it costs 50 CENTS.
There's BIKES on the cover.


It has INTERVIEWS with BILLY RAYGUN (New Hampshire pop punk), DOWSING (Illinois emo) and RYAN WOODS/TOBY FOSTER/THEO HILTON of DEFIANCE, OHIO/HIGH DIVE/NANA GRIZOL (US folk punk/pop punk).
It has a column about PIZZA by yours truly. And one about LADIES by Joëlle Laes.
It has zine and record REVIEWS.
It has a TOUR REPORT of the Outline trip to the UK.
It has A LOT of stuff, you see.

And you can read that stuff, if you get a copy from me!
You can do so through the usual ways:
- in person. just hit me up. whatevz. we're buds.
- on a show, specified below
- through the mail. send me your address. shipping is a euro or something, whatever, I don't care. international order is some more (3 euros?). use http://thisaintnoise.bigcartel.com/ or send address to thisaintnoise@gmail.com. I throw in stickers and perhaps a cd or something.

Upcoming shows:
05/09: PJ Bond (Carpe Diem, Hasselt)
08/09: I Not Dance (Eglantier, Antwerpen-Berchem)
09/09: Not On Tour (Oude Ketel, Heist-Op-Den-Berg)
22/09: Adrenalized (Rockcafé, Leuven)
09/10: Elway (Kamikaze, Mechelen)

30-08-2013

James [Moon, Red Cloud, PJ] Bond

I finally did it! I succeeded! I went to Diest! JH Tijl!
I went to the TIJL UNPLUGGED DELUXE show, which featured local resident star James Moon, reasonably local bearded dude Red Cloud and international famous superstar PJ Bond. Did you see the title? See what I did there? Clever, huh? [Note: I have never seen a James Bond film in my life.]

James Moon is a singer-songwriter. They're ll singer-songwriters. WE are all singer-songwriters! Anyway, let's focus on the point. Very Paul Banks-ish. (Paul Banks is the vocalist for Interpol. Interpol is a rock band. Thought you might wanna know.) Hints of Editors and alike pop rock/new wave artists. It was cool. I guess.

Teun is the vocalist for Break Of Day, Generation 84 and also has a solo-project Red Cloud. He's very punk-influenced of course, but also takes quite large notes from folk and country (from 50's folk singers to 60 country rock to 90s bearded punx drinking whiskey, basically). Sometimes it sounds blatantly unoriginal, at other times it sounded cool and endearing (I don't know if that's a word and definitely not sure if it means what I want it to mean). Teun is an amazing singer, yet not a hero at guitar. Power chords only get you so far when it's just you and your guitar. But above all, of course, it's the sincerity and the sheer love for music that's important for punkrockers-gone-acoustic like him. Genuine music from a genuine man with too much hair. Reminds me, he also made me giggle at two occasions:
1) When he put on his harmonica construction, he made a joke about the lack of having braces so he liked to put that on. Chuckle.
2) When he covered Blink's First Date, he sang the line "Do you like my stupid hair?" and rolled his eyes at his own hair. Got a good laugh out of that.
Honestly though, his hair's alright, his voice is awesome, his guitar skills are pretty decent, his show could've been better, but it also could've been worse. Voila.

PJ Bond! Whoo! I like PJ Bond. He's a great man, a great musician and he's really down to earth. He played a really cool set, including an appropriate amount of banter. He's got a new 7" that you should buy, although the songs are already a year old or something like that. The songs are really good. And his voice is really powerful, which helped cause there were a lot of people talking during the set which was kinda lame-ish.

Anyway, let's discuss, interactively. I was thinking, how much stage banter is cool? On a scale of Sunn O))) to NOFX (I've never seen Sunn O))) but I figure talking would ruin the set so I guess they don't do it?)? And is it cool to explain songs? Even in liner notes of records, some bands want to explain the song's meaning. I think that's really cool, but I've heard people who find it annoying, distracting or doing injustice to the songs. People always rag on about interpretation and such, but in the end most songs are about a specific thing the writer thinks about.
I was just thinking about that. Let's discuss this sometime.

Superdeath

Same time, same place, same shit, different week. Another hardcore hardcore show in Kamikaze Club, Mechelen.
For the purpose of symmetry I will copy last week's blog post and adapt it so it is adequate and relevant.
I had nothing to do Wednesday so I said to myself "there's this lousy hardcore/metalcore show in Mechelen, and it's free and it's possible some cool people will be there. even if the bands aren't that good, I'll still be out and about and it'll be fun."
And it was. I got drunk, hung out with largely the same people as last week. De Vjee was also there and we decided to get married at age 30. That's cool. And I saw some hardcore bands. Great night.

The wheater was nice and I was feeling great but I took the bus this time. It's a 20-minute walk, normally, but I didn't feel like making an effort. Of course, it took equally as long to arrive there with public transport as it does by foot. Thankfully, I was listening to the new Muncie Girls EP and that kept my moods fairly high. Listen to Muncie Girls.

I got to the venue and met Jolien and her friend, whose name I now know. He's a cool dude. It was kind of a flashback, or a deja-vu, which was funny. There seem to always be a lot of hardcore kids in Mechelen. That's cool, I guess?

Atlas had already played. I missed them. They are releasing an EP shortly through the v. cool people of Viva Love recs. So maybe it's cool. I don't really know. My bud Niek told me he really supports them, so maybe I should believe him. He also told me he liked my blog yesterday, which is really cool of him to say, really cool for me to hear and something you should all do cause it makes me feel good. Listen to Muncie Girls.

Hanging with the kids. Domien arrived, whoo. Good times, fun conversations, good beers.

As Prayers Fail. Dutch band. Really weird! I was really confused. I liked 40% of it, and was indifferent to or disliked 60% of what they played. And I mean even in the same song. I didn't make all too much sense to me. Like they couldn't choose to rip off Defeater or to rip off Parkway Drive. So I was split between 'oh, cool!' and just 'oh...'. I'd rather listen to Muncie Girls.

Liferuiner was pretty cool. I was giddy enough so me and Domien went for the moshpit and showed 'em what we got. I cant' speak for Domien, but, really, I got nothing. I mean, compared to these kids. And I'm kinda glad I got nothing, cause some of these kids got a lot but they can't (slam) dance for shiiiiiit. Anyway, Liferuiner was kinda cool, I guess. Just hard-hitting hardcore. Straight edge I think. But the kids don't get it man. When this dude tells 'em to mosh, they'll mosh, but when they play this song called MegaDEATH which has THE HEAVIEST INTRO EVER, everybody just stood there. What the fuck? Didn't make sense. But then it's okay to punch people in the face during the generic breakdowns? Fucking hardcore kids. I'd like to refer to Cedric Bixler Zavala here.
Listen to Muncie Girls. Fucks.

After-show hangouts were cool, got to know some of Domien's colleagues and we listened to the new MC Karel album on the way home. I also sold some records that night, which was cool!
Domien had a day off the next day so we got shitfaced in Leuven and thrashed some bars till 5 AM. Life rules. Felt like shit the entire Thursday though.

What a great night.

Listen to Muncie Girls.
There ya have it! Listen to Sleepless, by Muncie Girls, right now.