Veteran label Tooth & Nail Records are to air a new podcast. “Labeled: The Stories, Rumors & Legends of Tooth & Nail Records” will be a weekly affair, promising to “take listeners behind the scenes of one of this generation’s defining indie record labels”. A podcast preview is up to have a listen to now.
Veteran label Tooth & Nail Records are to air a new podcast. “Labeled: The Stories, Rumors & Legends of Tooth & Nail Records” will be a weekly affair, promising to “take listeners behind the scenes of one of this generation’s defining indie record labels”.
A podcast preview is up to have a listen to now.
Recently reformed Berkeley street punkers MFB have detailed their return, 7 track EP. “I Want My Miserable Life Back” includes recent single “God Bless Amerikkka” and is out May 5th on various formats – all of which are available from the label Bandcamp page. You can have an advance listen to a couple of the […]
Recently reformed Berkeley street punkers MFB have detailed their return, 7 track EP. “I Want My Miserable Life Back” includes recent single “God Bless Amerikkka” and is out May 5th on various formats – all of which are available from the label Bandcamp page.
You can have an advance listen to a couple of the tracks from the EP below.
Denver based hardcore outfit Victim Culture are streaming their latest self-titled EP. The release features eight tracks of rapid, metal infused angst, and will likely excite fans of early Comeback Kid, and Gallows. You can listen to the full release below.
Denver based hardcore outfit Victim Culture are streaming their latest self-titled EP. The release features eight tracks of rapid, metal infused angst, and will likely excite fans of early Comeback Kid, and Gallows.
You can listen to the full release below.
Brighton based hardcore trio, Howls, are streaming their latest full-length record The Headache. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse Studios, and released by Truthseeker Music and Smiths Food Group DIY. If you’re liking what you’re hearing below, head over to Howls bandcamp page, and grab yourself a copy.
Brighton based hardcore trio, Howls, are streaming their latest full-length record The Headache. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse Studios, and released by Truthseeker Music and Smiths Food Group DIY. If you’re liking what you’re hearing below, head over to Howls bandcamp page, and grab yourself a copy.
Florida punk rockers The Attack have announced that they will hit the road with icons of the scene Face to Face this May. They will also be joined by Authority Zero, and Counterpunch for one hell of a show a Hog’s and Heifer’s in Las Vegas. Check out the full list of tour dates below.
Florida punk rockers The Attack have announced that they will hit the road with icons of the scene Face to Face this May. They will also be joined by Authority Zero, and Counterpunch for one hell of a show a Hog’s and Heifer’s in Las Vegas.
Check out the full list of tour dates below.
New York party punks Patent Pending have announced they will release “new” material on May, 26, 2017. The album, Other People’s Greatest Hits, comprises exclusively of tunes popularised by a plethora of legendary pop artists, such as Ricky Martin, The Killers, and The Spice Girls. As a way to excite fans for the new release, the […]
New York party punks Patent Pending have announced they will release “new” material on May, 26, 2017. The album, Other People’s Greatest Hits, comprises exclusively of tunes popularised by a plethora of legendary pop artists, such as Ricky Martin, The Killers, and The Spice Girls. As a way to excite fans for the new release, the band are streaming a few tracks from it. Joining their earlier release of “Spice Up Your Life” is Little Mix tune, “Shout Out to My Ex”.
Check out the full proposed track list for Other People’s Greatest Hits and take a listen to “Shout Out to My Ex” below.
Washington ska punks Kill Lincoln have announced a short tour of the West Coast this July. The band will be joined by Fairhaven and various other artists. Details of the supports, and dates can be found below.
Washington ska punks Kill Lincoln have announced a short tour of the West Coast this July. The band will be joined by Fairhaven and various other artists. Details of the supports, and dates can be found below.
Milwaukee’s Dummerfest has announced its lineup for this year’s show. Held in June, 2017 the event will host: Off With Their Heads, Negative Approach, PEARS, Typesetter, Direct Hit!, Brokedowns, Avenues, The Copyrights, plus many more who will be announced in the coming weeks. If you’d like to get a ticket for the show, just visit the festival’s event page for all the […]
Milwaukee’s Dummerfest has announced its lineup for this year’s show. Held in June, 2017 the event will host: Off With Their Heads, Negative Approach, PEARS, Typesetter, Direct Hit!, Brokedowns, Avenues, The Copyrights, plus many more who will be announced in the coming weeks.
If you’d like to get a ticket for the show, just visit the festival’s event page for all the necessary details.
Florida’s Caffiends have released their twelve track split with Pennsylvania’s Peabodys. The record features six tracks from both bands and is available via Swamp Cabbage, No Time, Everything Sucks, and Team Beard Records. You can listen to the entire thing below, or grab a copy if you like it.
Florida’s Caffiends have released their twelve track split with Pennsylvania’s Peabodys. The record features six tracks from both bands and is available via Swamp Cabbage, No Time, Everything Sucks, and Team Beard Records.
You can listen to the entire thing below, or grab a copy if you like it.
Chicago’s Fitness is a band that hit me out of nowhere. We get a handful of band’s like that every year, the sort that send you reeling with a name you’ve never heard and a sound you’re glad you had. In this case, the connection was Don’t Panic Records, who handled the vinyl of the […]
Chicago’s Fitness is a band that hit me out of nowhere. We get a handful of band’s like that every year, the sort that send you reeling with a name you’ve never heard and a sound you’re glad you had. In this case, the connection was Don’t Panic Records, who handled the vinyl of the fantastic Davey Dynamite release last year. Fitness’ Puppet Show is a six song EP, a youthful and scrappy concoction of pop punk with tons of guitar leads, self loathing, and sing a longs.
Puppet Showgrabs you from the first song, immediately familiar and simultaneously new. If you sniff around, you can hear the influences, but none of them ever quite come to define their sound. The first one that came to mind for me was Hot Water Music, who’s dueling guitar leads became an oft-copied sonic idiosyncrasy, but Fitness don’t play it with the same post-hardcore edge. When Fitness plays them, they have a more electric, less serpentine and melancholy feel. It’s this pop sensibility that signals Fitness as more than a band of Gainesville acolytes. They don’t have that droney edge, that sense that they ended up writing singalong songs through mad scientist potion mixing, deconstruction and rebuilding. No, Fitness has a knack for pop songwriting, strong melodies are the glue that holds their songs together, and in this sense they sound a bit like Junior Battles or Problem Daughter. But, Fitness is propulsive, more straight-ahead than either of those– when a song gets out of its cage, it rampages.
Album opener “Road Lizard” is a good example of this: guttural vocal delivery, guitar leads flexing at each other over an insistent beat. It has its own mix of energies, and it always comes as a surprise, that the vocals are as raw sounding as they are. Separated from the rest of the track, they could’ve been from a hardcore band– that’s how much snarl they put on the words. But with the instrumentation’s bouncy energy, it becomes this airy and energetic brand of pop punk.
There’s a difference between good playing and good songwriting. One of them allows a band a spot on bills, it sounds tight live but doesn’t stick with you for the drive home. The latter keeps the songs stamped on a time and place, we grow on them and they grow on us. Fitness has a cool sound, but what they also have is songwriting chops to spare. Puppet Show reminds me of the Dead Bars EP, in that is expresses a sharp and consistent songwriting vision, with defeatist lyrics met with triumphant melody. “Roseanne’s Bar”’s 60s pop chorus starts with the line “Call me a liar, call me pathetic…,” sounding like a Phil Spector penned Nirvana song. These are the types of decisions that make the sort of inward-focused punk that has become popular in the last ten years stick, rather than remaining a competent copy of a copy. The best airings of grievances come with a hook, a recognition in the crowd that as you sing along, there’s a kindred spirit out there, a conversation between artist and audience where the response is: me too.
To sum it all up with a thesis logline: Puppet Show is a great EP from a band poised to do a lot more in the future. They’re exciting, there’s a sense of urgency to their music that’s infectious, enough aggression to sell the venom in the lyrics. Each song is an experience, with busy leads that bounce off each other like billiard balls on break, full throated singalongs begging to be shouted back; songs that come out swinging, gloves in the air and a pep in their step, hungry for connection.
4/5 stars