<p>Just before the world shut down last year, Chicago's Kali Masi drove to suburban Massachusetts to hole up at Jay Maas's Getaway Recording Studio to get to work on the full-length follow-up to their 2017 debut, Wind Instrument (Take This To Heart Records). Fast forward a year (March 26th, to be precise) and the band unleashed the final product, [laughs], to the masses, also via Take That To Heart Records. It is, in your humble host's opinion, is one of the best albums in recent memory.</p>
<p>We managed to convince the quartet to forgo their regularly-scheduled band practice and, instead, to chat with us for an hour or so. We of course talked about the writing and recording processes, and the decision to embrace some of the weird directions that they scratched the surface of on Wind Instrument. We also dug into some of the different ways the band not only kept busy but kept productive in the run-up to the album release, included a handful of brilliantly self-produced videos (see links below, especially "Trophy Deer" and "Guilt Like A Gun"). Much thanks to Sam and Wes And Anthony and John!</p>
<p>Make sure you pick up [laughs] here: <a href='https://kalimasi.bandcamp.com/'>https://kalimasi.bandcamp.com/ </a></p>
<p>[laughs] Videos:</p>
<p>The Stray: <a href='https://youtu.be/Ek1PANfbVNs'>https://youtu.be/Ek1PANfbVNs </a></p>
<p>Freer: <a href='https://youtu.be/UX4pmCm1dNg'>https://youtu.be/UX4pmCm1dNg </a></p>
<p>Trophy Deer: <a href='https://youtu.be/SU6Q6DQa3n4'>https://youtu.be/SU6Q6DQa3n4 </a></p>
<p>Guilt Like A Gun: <a href='https://youtu.be/bvHq2NmE5rQ'>https://youtu.be/bvHq2NmE5rQ </a></p>
<p>New (*both laughs*) theme song is an excerpt from [laughs] track "Hurts To Laugh." © KALI MASI 2021 ℗ Take This To Heart Records 2021</p>

<p>When we started doing this "show" (is it okay to call it a show? It feels weird…), the initial point was to talk to bands and people in the music scene who had their plans for 2020 put on indefinite hold and who, somehow, used the time of uncertainty to remain connected and creative and to put their previously unforeseen downtime to good use. To paraphrase guitarist Max Beckman, for Orange County ska punks Half Past Two, 2020 ended up having a much more productive silver lining than they had initially planned.</p>
<p>The nine-piece band have stayed busy, putting out a series of covers (with corresponding music videos) of artists as diverse as Madonna and Ludo and Fountains of Wayne and Save Ferris and, my personal favorite, Dance Hall Crashers. The videos are all up on YouTube – check them out. But more importantly, the band have remained hard at work on their upcoming full-length release. They've put out a handful of singles from said album thus-far: a heart-warming, full band version of the previously acoustic "Shine," followed by "All About You" and, most recently, the absolutely killer "Mean Green."</p>
<p>We caught up with Beckman for a chat about how the band has used their quarantine wisely, their plans for their upcoming release (hint hint: while Half Past Two's 2017 Kickstarter was 400% successful, they have a different avenue planned this time out), what it's like to work – and get Covid vaccinated – at Disneyland, and when they may, finally, get their first chance to make it to the East Coast as a band.</p>

BOUNCING SOULS, TIM BARRY, & SHIP THIEVESNEW REPRESSES AVAILABLE NOW We’ve got new represses in stock for Bouncing Souls‘ The Good, The Bad, & The Argyle, Tim Barry‘s Manchester, and Ship Thieves‘ Irruption! They’re all available now on our online store.

<p>Blacklist Royals were one of the very first bands I got turned on to when I first started with Dying Scene more than a decade ago. Their debut full-length, Semper Liberi, was released back in 2010 on Paper + Plastick Records, and was filled with straight-forward, rock-and-roll-inspired punk rock songs. It was fun and no-frills and workman-like, and hell, it even included a cover of a Springsteen song.</p>
<p>I first met Nat in 2012, when he made an solo acoustic appearance in Boston opening up for the acoustic Ignorance Is Bliss run that Face To Face's Trever Keith and Scott Shiflett were doing. I met his twin brother, Rob, for the first time the following year, when, alongside Teenage Bottlerocket and Joshua Black Wilkins, the full-band Blacklist Royals opened up for a plugged-in Face To Face on a lengthy nationwide tour.</p>
<p>We've stayed in touch over the years and I've interviewed them both for various projects — 2014's Blacklist Royals sophomore full-length Die Young With Me, Rob's 2016 debut book of the same title, and most recently on (*both laugh*) Episode 2 for Rob's first novel, Vinyl Underground. Somehow, despite having kept in touch for close to a decade, (*both laugh*) Episode 33 marks the first time I've ever talked to both Nat and Rob together!</p>
<p>On April 2nd, the world will be graced with new Blacklist Royals music for the first time in a hot minute. The three-song Doomsday Girl EP (also released on Paper + Plastick) features a sound that's raw and reminiscent of Semper Liberi, but with lyrics that are a little more personal, a la Die Young With Me. We talked about the new music – and also Nat's recent debut solo EP, an instrumental, Dick Dale-inspired surf guitar heavy release, as well as all of the goings-on in the world of Bad Signs, the Rufus' brothers' goth-punk honky tonk side project with Nashville singer-songwriter Samantha Harlow. Now that we're a year into quarantine, we also talked about how it'll feel once we're all vaccinated and we can get back to enjoying live music together again. Maybe for Fest this year, for the Semper Liberi 11th anniversary (Fest in 2020 was supposed to be feature a Semper Liberi 10th anniversary show with original BLR members, but we all know how that turned out)…</p>
<p>Visit Blacklist Royals on Facebook: <a href='https://www.facebook.com/blacklistroyalsfb/'>https://www.facebook.com/blacklistroyalsfb/ </a></p>
<p>Visit the Bad Signs here: <a href='http://www.thebadsignsband.com/'>http://www.thebadsignsband.com/ </a></p>
<p>Check out Rob's home page too: <a href='http://www.robrufus.net/home'>http://www.robrufus.net/home</a></p>
<p> </p>

SHIP THIEVES“IRRUPTION”PRE-ORDER NOW! Take a listen to a new song from Ship Thieves entitled “The Embers Of Enlightenment!” CLICK HERE to listen. This comes from their new album Irruption. Right now the vinyl is sold out on our webstore BUT you can get a copy at your local mom & pop record store (support independent […]

<p>tl/dr: Ship Thieves have a new album out on Chunksaah and it rules and we talked to Chris Wollard and Chad Darby for a couple hours and it was super fun and important and memorable.</p>
<p>To say that I'm a big fan of both of these guests is to vastly understate things. Not only do Chris Wollard and Chad Darby separately occupy important roles in a couple of my favorite bands of all time (obviously Hot Water Music and Samiam if you're keeping score at home), together they've been half of the grossly-underrated Gainesville band Ship Thieves for just over a decade. If you're not familiar with the history, here's a brief retelling: back around 2008/2009, Hot Water Music's Chris Wollard put together a side project that was never intended to be a "real band." He got together with Addison Burns and a few other buddies and recorded a handful of songs at a handful of locations and put out an album known as Chris Wollard + The Ship Thieves back in 2009 on No Idea Records. Fast forward a couple years, and a lineup that included Wollard, Burns, Chad Darby on bass and Bobby Brown on drums had solidified, and collectively they put out the second Chris Wollard + The Ship Thieves album, "Canyons," in 2012. It was a little more riff-rock oriented than the occasionally-acoustic debut album that came before it. By 2016's "No Anchor," the lineup remained not only intact but had developed its own identity and direction, thus Wollard's decision to drop his name from the title and have the project carry on as Ship Thieves. 2021 brings with it the release of "Irruption." The band has found a home on a new label, Chunksaah Records, a label run by the inimitable Kate Hilts and the Bouncing Souls camp. It continues down the musical road that the band was headed down on "No Anchor," and in many ways it does all of the things that "No Anchor" did, only it does them better. The rhythm section of Darby and Brown is as tight as ever, and Darby's bass grooves move in ways we hadn't heard from this outfit before. Burns also moves to the front to take on co-vocal duties on a few tracks, his smoother delivery a noted contrast from Wollard's trademark gravel-throated tones. The band had a lot of fun making the album, and that is evident in spades throughout the duration of the couple hours that we were lucky enough to chat with Wollard and Darby. This was one for the baby book (we still have that, right mom?). "Irruption" is out March 12th and you can theoretically pre-order it on vinyl, except that all the options are presently sold out. There's other new Ship Thieves merch here though: https://www.coldcutsmerch.com/collections/chunksaahrecords</p>

<p>Chances are, if you're familiar with Tobias Nathaniel, it's through the decades he spent primarily behind the keyboard as one-half of the duo at the core of San Diego's Black Heart Procession. (Okay, so maybe you know him from Three Mile Pilot. Or, sure, maybe you know him from playing keys on that Blonde Redhead song that got used as Evil Morty's theme on Rick & Morty.) Anyway, about a half-dozen years ago, Tobias moved from the West Coast to Belgrade, Serbia, where he lives with his now-wife. He started a new project called The Red Step, which finds him not only playing guitar but assuming lead vocal duties for the first time as well. The Red Step put out their long-awaited, self-titled, debut full-length last week on Pravda Records, and it's a really great piece of sometimes haunting, sometimes thrashing, sometimes punishing piece of post-punk. This was a fun conversation, covering a lot of ground that started with Tobias' musical upbringing and his decision to step out in front of a band for the first time, and with special importance played to the unique guitar that's been along with him for the duration (an Ibanez AM300, of course). Make sure you pick up The Red Step here: https://pravdamusic.com/album/1860124/the-red-step</p>

<p>EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, I know the audio says it's Episode 29, but I recorded a couple out of order, so it's technically Episode 30. Glad we cleared that up.</p>
<p>What do you do if you're stuck in pandemic-related shutdown and your band has to put plans on hold indefinitely? If you're Smoking Popes frontman Josh Caterer, you record a live album at an empty bar in Chicago with a few guys you've never played with before! For the project, Caterer teamed up with John San Juan of the Hushdrops and John Perrin of NRBQ, and the trio took over the Hideout in Chicago for a night in late October. The resulting album is due out later this month on Pravda Records!</p>

<p>Eight weeks into 2021…the perfect time for us to release our Albums of the Year List from 2020, ammiright?!?!? To be fair though, the delay isn't 100% our fault. We rely on other people to post their lists early enough for us to cheat off of them and that didn't happen this year. Sooooo, really the blame falls on everyone else. Now, enough chitter chatter!!! Get to listening, comrades and don't forget to let us know what your favorite albums were from 2020!</p> <p>You can also stream from your browser over on our <a href= "http://dsradio.libsyn.com/">podcast homepage</a> or find us on <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dying-scene-radio-official/id1287380361">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/robert-burns/dying-scene-radio-official">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0Ewrjwl6wXwl6cCREBswz1">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ih3adpqld3benktbuojg6kjmrw4">Google Podcasts</a> and <a href= "https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-dying-scene-radio-official-30990574/">I Heart Radio.</a> </p> <p>Follow us on <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/dyingsceneradio/">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/official.dyingsceneradio/">Instagram</a> for more news, updates, show & fest pics and articles!</p> <p> ————————————————————————</p> <p><em>*In a band? Want to be featured on the podcast? Send your shit to dyingsceneradio@dyingscene.com and if it’s good enough, we’ll probably play it! If you send us some swag, it’ll increase your chances… just sayin’!</em></p> <p>AoTY 2020 Playlist</p> The OBGMs – <em>The Ends</em> – “All My Friends” Days N Daze – <em>Show Me the Blueprints</em> – “Ditches” Dikembe – <em>Muck</em> – “All Got Sick” War on Women – <em>Wonderful Hell</em> – “Wonderful Hell” The Fizzgigs – <em>Weeeeeeeeee Are the Fizzgigs</em> – “Moontime” The Suicide Machines – <em>Revolution Spring</em> – “Detroit is the New Miami” Pears – <em>S/T</em> – “Dial Up” Get Dead – <em>Dancing with the Curse</em> – “Pepperspray” The Lungs – <em>Psychic Tombs</em> – “Jesus Rode in a Pale Horse” Western Addiction – <em>Frail Bray</em> – “They Burned Our Paintings” The Stifled – <em>Everything’s Fine</em> – “Floor is Lava” Jeff Rosenstock – <em>No Dream</em> – “Scram!” Be Well – <em>The Weight and The Cost</em> – “Each Passing Day” Slick Shoes – <em>Rotation & Frequency</em> – “Carry This” Teenage Halloween – <em>S/T</em> – “Holes” Brandish – <em>Funfair/Warfare</em> – “Funfair/Warfare” The Early Thirties – <em>People Are Going to Be so Impressed</em> – “Thank God for Craigslist” Record Thieves – <em>Wasting Time</em> – “Actors for Hire” Dogleg – <em>Melee</em> – “Kawasaki Backflip” <p>Listen to these songs, along with all of the other songs we've featured on the podcast on our <a href= "https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/dying-scene-22/pl.u-8aAVXElsvR5yRz">iTunes</a> and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2C21HBcB7epknlRtUxObZs">Spotify</a> Playlists!</p>

<p>Eight weeks into 2021…the perfect time for us to release our Albums of the Year List from 2020, ammiright?!?!? To be fair though, the delay isn't 100% our fault. We rely on other people to post their lists early enough for us to cheat off of them and that didn't happen this year. Sooooo, really the blame falls on everyone else. Now, enough chitter chatter!!! Get to listening, comrades and don't forget to let us know what your favorite albums were from 2020!</p>
<p>You can also stream from your browser over on our <a href='http://dsradio.libsyn.com/'>podcast homepage</a> or find us on <a href='https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dying-scene-radio-official/id1287380361'>iTunes</a>, <a href='https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/robert-burns/dying-scene-radio-official'>Stitcher</a>, <a href='https://open.spotify.com/show/0Ewrjwl6wXwl6cCREBswz1'>Spotify</a>, <a href='https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ih3adpqld3benktbuojg6kjmrw4'>Google Podcasts</a> and <a href='https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-dying-scene-radio-official-30990574/'>I Heart Radio.</a> </p>
<p>Follow us on <a href='https://www.facebook.com/dyingsceneradio/'>Facebook</a> and <a href='https://www.instagram.com/official.dyingsceneradio/'>Instagram</a> for more news, updates, show & fest pics and articles!</p>
<p> ————————————————————————</p>
<p>*In a band? Want to be featured on the podcast? Send your shit to dyingsceneradio@dyingscene.com and if it’s good enough, we’ll probably play it! If you send us some swag, it’ll increase your chances… just sayin’!</p>
<p>AoTY 2020 Playlist</p>
The OBGMs – The Ends – “All My Friends” Days N Daze – Show Me the Blueprints – “Ditches” Dikembe – Muck – “All Got Sick” War on Women – Wonderful Hell – “Wonderful Hell” The Fizzgigs – Weeeeeeeeee Are the Fizzgigs – “Moontime” The Suicide Machines – Revolution Spring – “Detroit is the New Miami” Pears – S/T – “Dial Up” Get Dead – Dancing with the Curse – “Pepperspray” The Lungs – Psychic Tombs – “Jesus Rode in a Pale Horse” Western Addiction – Frail Bray – “They Burned Our Paintings” The Stifled – Everything’s Fine – “Floor is Lava” Jeff Rosenstock – No Dream – “Scram!” Be Well – The Weight and The Cost – “Each Passing Day” Slick Shoes – Rotation & Frequency – “Carry This” Teenage Halloween – S/T – “Holes” Brandish – Funfair/Warfare – “Funfair/Warfare” The Early Thirties – People Are Going to Be so Impressed – “Thank God for Craigslist” Record Thieves – Wasting Time – “Actors for Hire” Dogleg – Melee – “Kawasaki Backflip” <p>Listen to these songs, along with all of the other songs we've featured on the podcast on our <a href='https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/dying-scene-22/pl.u-8aAVXElsvR5yRz'>iTunes</a> and <a href='https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2C21HBcB7epknlRtUxObZs'>Spotify</a> Playlists!</p>