Canadian punks PUP have a new music video out. “See You At Your Funeral” sees the band celebrating Halloween with the help of director Joe Stakun. The track appears on PUP’s 2019 record Morbid Stuff.

Along with the new video, PUP have a few tour dates to share with you. You can check them and the new video out below.

The PUP release prior to Morbid Stuff was 2016’s The Dream is Over.

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Fresh are a defiant, poppy, punk band from London UK. Earlier this year they released their 2nd full length LP ‘Withdraw’ on Specialist Subject Records (Bristol UK). It’s ripping and people ate it up. They toured with Slingshot Dakota this past summer and are now in the USA playing Fest in Gainseville (Sunday, 8p at Loosey’s); touring up the East Coast with Adult Mom then back across the ocean to take on the UK with PUP.

They’ve been raising funds and awareness about eating disorder resources at their shows all year and now these wonderful punks are donating bandcamp download profits from their lastest single ‘Cinema Woes’ to a leading ED support and advocacy group in the UK, called BEAT.

Stream “Cinema Woes” and check out the band’s tour dates below. Catch them if you can!

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When the sun’s out and I’m feeling carefree I love my ska and pop-punk. When I’m feeling nostalgic and wistful I skew towards Menzingers or emo. When I’ve had three cups of coffee and need an outlet for the nebulous discontentment that silently builds behind the exterior of my stoic demeanor I turn towards hardcore-punk. That’s where I’m at this morning so when a request to check out the debut album from Californian skate-punk/hardcore act Facelift hit my inbox it was perfectly timed. This music is raw. It’s fast as hell. And it’s f’ing pissed off. Oh, and it’s riddled with metallic riff breakdowns which absolutely clinched it for me (give it 2:20 into the album opener to see what I mean). Turn up the volume and let off some steam with me by streaming “Sinceforevertilwhenever” here.

Hailing from Perth, Australia, The Decline are back with their fourth studio album; Flash Gordon Ramsay Street. This album is a return to the fast, loud punk rock that underpinned their first 2 albums but went missing somewhat on their previous release “Resistor”. You could be forgiven for thinking that this album is a 90’s or early 2000’s punk band signed to Fat Wreck Chords, it has definitely got that Southern California punk feel about it. 

The album artwork is uniquely Australian with a Kookaburra sitting on a street sign that reads the album title “Flash Gordon Ramsay Street” in front of a court bowl bearing resemblance to that of Ramsay Street. For non-Australian (or British) readers; Ramsay Street is iconic for being the setting of terrible Australian soap opera “Neighbours”. The process of nonsensically joining pairs of words that flow into one another, the way a rapper – or schizophrenic – may, is continued from the album title to the 6th song ‘Summerbucht’ and the 13th song ’Bahia De Verano’. These songs, each 5 seconds long, include the same 15 words “flash Gordon Ramsay street fighter pilot light sabre tooth fairy dust Pan Pacific rim job” as the former ramps up in intensity and the latter winds down with the album. 

The album reaches a value-for-money 17 songs but only checks in at 30min in length, ensuring the listener doesn’t lose interest or get bored throughout the album. Kicking off with the very solid “Bullet With Buffalo Wings”, the album really comes into its own on the second -and arguably the best- song “Brovine”.  Without having any context, it is hard to tell whether this song is about sexual harassment and domestic abuse, or factory farms and meat-eating – most likely it is about both. The songs’ verses are tied together with a chorus-chant of “fuck off with your macho shit” sung with such passion that I can’t help but join in every time it is sung, I can only imagine this would be amazing in a live show. The albums intensity continues to rise through the fourth song “War” which features guest singer Nuno Pereira of A Wilhelm Scream taking control of the song for a single verse that completely changes from The Decline’s usual sound to that AWS.

The guest vocals don’t end there, the very next song, “A Verge Collection”, features Stacy Dee of Bad Cop Bad Cop as the girlfriend that the protagonist is running from. As the album approaches the end, the mood is lifted slightly by the song “Get Hyrule, Save Zelda” which features slightly more poppy music over a more relaxed set of lyrics about playing Zelda. For Australian music fans, it is worth identifying this song as another – “Get, See” song, starting with The Smith Street Band’s “Get High, See Mice”, Lincoln Le Fevre’s “Get Drunk, See Bands” and Luca Brasi’s “Get Sad, See No One”. 

The raised mood is only temporary before the album ends on a particularly sad pair of songs, “Your Funeral” and “Josh”. “Your Funeral” is the only slow song on the album and is sung with serious emotion; the lyrics express concern for an old friend, the lyrics “feels like we wrote the whole of Eat That in your background over beers” identifies the friend in trouble as a past band member and quite likely former vocalist Dan Cribb. The song focuses on the friends mental health issues, not being in contact with the friend and the associated feeling of not being able to do anything to make a difference. This leads into the louder “Josh” a tribute to a friend who has died and how different things are now that he is gone. This doesn’t have the raw sadness of “Your Funeral” and feels more like a celebration of the life and good times that were shared before the passing of Josh. 

The album has really put The Decline back in the drivers seat of Australian punk rock and demonstrates that they should be far more famous than they are. A little more touring to get their music out there and this album would be taking out the top spot on a lot of reviewers end of year lists. 

4.5/5 Stars

Ska as a genre has seen many iterations, from the first wave of Jamican ska bands in the 1960’s, to the English Two-Tone movement of the late 1970’s to the Third Wave in the 1990’s. Since then there have been a lot of successful bands who have put their own spin on these classic sounds. Which brings us to Mississippi’s Flying Raccoon Suit who take a mix of Jazz, Metal, Indie Rock, and Progressive Rock and stir in a frenzied punk ethos to create their own unique interpretation of the already diverse genre.

As evident on this year’s Static Home EP, a two tracked single, they are not afraid to experiment with their sound. With this single we are presented with two widely varied sounds, the first being the titular “Static Home” which gives the impression of a smokey Jazz club performance but with a rock edge. It gives the guitars and drums a little more weight which is counterbalanced with a silky smooth horn section. This allows Jessica’s vocals the chance to be more refined, but not without completely abandoning her punk side. This is followed by “Nothing’s Changed” which give us the large full horn section and upstroked guitars we would expect from classic third wave ska punk. However there is a frenetic time change instrumental breakdown in the latter half of the song that makes this song stand out and will keep the listener intensely engaged. Don’t simply take my word for it, check out the stream here.

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One of Scotland’s finest, Billy Liar has just put out a new lyric video for the song “I Still Struggle”, which appears on the album Some Legacy, released on June 21 via Red Scare Industries. “I Still Struggle” is available for streaming below, and be sure to check out his upcoming tour dates (also featured below) from FEST in Gainesville to Detroit and back over to the UK. Billy Liar is covering a lot of ground.   [Read more…]

Seminal emo / pop punk outfit My Chemical Romance have announced that they’ll reunite for an LA show at Shrine Expo hall on December 20th 2019.

Tickets go on sale Nov 01, 2019 – 12:00 PM (Local to LA) from this link.

If you know anything about Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds, then you know that any news from them means you’re in for something a little different. The band is absolutely killing it right now with the release of this new music video/cover of the the great Lillingtons‘ “All I hear is Static”. Derek Grant of Alkaline Trio, and Suicide Machines fame not only played on the track but directed the video as well. It’s a cover that originally appeared on Red Scare Industries: 15 Years of Tears and Beers. That compilation is available for purchase here through Red Scare Industries. Stream the new video below. [Read more…]

Cranston, RI’s Shore City are streaming their new single “Ironic Side”.

If you like Nofx style skate punk, give this song a spin below.

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London punks Petrol Girls have released a music video for their current single ‘No Love For A Nation’. The song was intended to reach UK radio today, which was previously set to be the date of the country leaving the EU. The band will be supporting Refused and Thrice across Europe next month. 

The single is taken from the studio album ‘Cut & Stitch’ which came out in March this year. Check out the video below.

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