Dying Scene caught an Unplugged performance at The Solar Roast in Pueblo, Colorado that featured Mineral Palace, Seth Anderson, Charlie and the Shithead, and Bedfires. Friends and family gathered for this intimate acoustic show and were not disappointed. DS even spotted Ellie Blackbird (Diskount Vodka) and Matt “Pickle” Hamilton (Diskount Vodka and the Dead End) […]
Dying Scene caught an Unplugged performance at The Solar Roast in Pueblo, Colorado that featured Mineral Palace, Seth Anderson, Charlie and the Shithead, and Bedfires. Friends and family gathered for this intimate acoustic show and were not disappointed. DS even spotted Ellie Blackbird (Diskount Vodka) and Matt “Pickle” Hamilton (Diskount Vodka and the Dead End) attending the show. Pueblo has a great music scene where the bands support each other.
Mineral Palace is a Pueblo band comprised of Anthony Soto on drums, Kristen Avita on bass and vocals, and Jesse McCoy on guitar and vocals. They put on a great show demonstrating their unique style of alternative music. Find them here.
Canadian’s Indie folk artist Seth Anderson performed a blend of indie-rock and emo-folk with a healthy dose of pop punk angst. Find him here.
Ben Roy is also a stand up comedian. Check him out here.
Pueblo’s own Bedfires set the tone of the night. Bedfires consists of Jesse McCoy of Mineral Palace and David Green. Bedfires just released a new single called “True North” available on Bandcamp. Find them here.
Behold, Inner City Witches! A hardcore / post-hardcore / punk / post-punk / all around good band hailing from St. Louis, Missourah. They’re releasing a new single tomorrow! It’s called “Witch on Film”. You’re cool and you read DyingScene.com so you get to listen to it a day early. Fuck yeah! You can, and should, […]
Behold, Inner City Witches! A hardcore / post-hardcore / punk / post-punk / all around good band hailing from St. Louis, Missourah. They’re releasing a new single tomorrow! It’s called “Witch on Film”. You’re cool and you read DyingScene.com so you get to listen to it a day early. Fuck yeah! You can, and should, do that right now by scrolling down the page and clicking play on the fancy embedded music player.
Here are some words (quite a few, actually) the band used to describe their new single:
“Witch on Film” has been through the wringer, has been played all over the country, and might be the first truly experimental and, for lack of a better word, WEIRD song that we created as a group. With all that being said, the song’s raw power and drive make it an obvious first choice for us to introduce to you the many Inner City Witches classics we will be releasing throughout the year. “Witch on Film” is a gateway to a new kind of punk that is hardcore adjacent… but not really. It’s clearly punk… yet relative to what? This is the type of empty pocket we love finding ourselves in when we cannot truly answer the question: “What does your band sound like?”
By the way, I think Inner City Witches will be releasing an EP called Hoof! soon. This song will be on it. Perhaps you should stay tuned to their social media if you’d like to stay updated on that.
This premiere is brought to you in part by Punk Rock Radar. If you’d like your band’s music video to be premiered by Dying Scene and Punk Rock Radar, go here and follow these instructions. You’ll be on your way to previously unimagined levels of fame and fortune in no time!
You can witness Inner City Witches performing music at one or multiple of the following establishments!
March 15th- Sinkhole (St. Louis) April 19th- The Backside (St. Louis) April 20th- Spinellis Downtown (Louisville) April 21st- The Garage (Nashville) May 25th- Cooler BNB (St.Louis)
Happy hump day, folks. Today we’re gracing you with another wonderful exclusive premiere, this time from the pride of Edison, New Jersey, Sally Draper! These guys just put out a bad ass new record called American Dream and we’re debuting the music video for “Dance Like No One Is Watching (No One’s Watching Anyway)” (that’s […]
Happy hump day, folks. Today we’re gracing you with another wonderful exclusive premiere, this time from the pride of Edison, New Jersey, Sally Draper! These guys just put out a bad ass new record called American Dream and we’re debuting the music video for “Dance Like No One Is Watching (No One’s Watching Anyway)” (that’s a song off the record btw).
Check that shit out below and then head over to Sally Draper’s Bandcamp to listen to the rest of the album and perhaps purchase it on CD (or get the digital download). That shit’s only 5 bucks, you’d be a fucking idiot not to buy one! Are you a fucking idiot? Of course not!
Sally Draper is Recommended If You Like: Chinese Telophones, Toys That Kill, Spraynard, the Grabass Charlestons, etc. etc. etc.
This premiere is brought to you in part by Punk Rock Radar. If you’d like your band’s music video to be premiered by Dying Scene and Punk Rock Radar, go here and follow these instructions. You’ll be on your way to previously unimagined levels of fame and fortune in no time!
Dying Scene ran into Chicago-based author and vocalist Kyle Decker several times between September 2023 and January 2024. On January 27th, 2024, Dying Scene met up with Decker at Jackalope Coffee & Tea House and Let’s Boogie Records in the Bridgeport neighborhood for an interview and photoshoot. Decker is the author of This Rancid Mill […]
Dying Scene ran into Chicago-based author and vocalist Kyle Decker several times between September 2023 and January 2024. On January 27th, 2024, Dying Scene met up with Decker at Jackalope Coffee & Tea House and Let’s Boogie Records in the Bridgeport neighborhood for an interview and photoshoot. Decker is the author of This Rancid Mill and sings in the Chicago punk band Bad Chemicals.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Dying Scene: Thank you for meeting me here. Tell me about yourself.
Kyle Decker: I’m Kyle Decker. I am an author, educator, and punk vocalist living in Chicago, Illinois. I was born in Tacoma, Washington. I grew up in this picturesque little town called Gig Harbor, but my mom’s from out here, and we moved out here when I was about eight or nine years old, which was sometime in the mid-1990s.
DS: You also lived in Korea…
KD: Yeah. I lived in South Korea from August of 2013 until New Year’s day of 2018. So, I was out there for about four and a half years. I was teaching English and writing for various magazines. I organized DIY shows for fun and charity. I never kept any of the money. I always gave it to the bands or whatever charity we were doing stuff for. Teaching English was my day job and I met my wife out there and I played in a punk band.
DS: So, the experience was...
KD: Well, life-changing. I met my wife there. It was the first time that I ever really realized the dream of being in a band and performing music. I had writer’s groups out there…two that I was a part of that…we were a workshop and we gave each other feedback on our projects.
DS: Last November, we caught up at your book reading Bucket O’ Blood Books And Records. You were promoting your latest novel, This Rancid Mill, and a new short story, “Brother.” Tell me about those stories.
KD: Well, This Rancid Mill is my novel. It’s a combination. It’s very influenced by old school pulp, hard-boiled detective novels, especially Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, that sort of thing. But it’s set in Los Angeles in the early 1980s punk scene. So, a lot of both punk rock and hard-boiled detective novels have this sort of certain takes on masculinity, certain nihilistic themes that both of those genres share. So, I was trying to find that overlap on the Venn diagram between these different forms of art and that’s where a lot of This Rancid Mill came from. The short story “Brother” was published in a magazine called Punk Noir Magazine, which is very kismet, and they were asking for stories that were inspired by songs. “Brother” was inspired by the song “Brother,” by the band Murder by Death, a longtime favorite band of mine. That song and story is about a man, the narrator of the story, who has a brother who is a less than admirable person, always finds himself coming to the brother’s defense.
Decker holding a Murder by Death album at Bucket O Blood.
DS: Thanks for sharing that. So, we’re at Jackalope Coffee & Tea House. I understand this coffee shop is important to you. Why is this place important?
KD: I used to live in the neighborhood, literally two blocks away from Jackalope Coffee & Tea House, when I moved back to the States. It was before my wife joined me over here and I had a couple roommates. And so sometimes, to study or to write, I would have to get out of the house a bit. And Jackalope was where I wrote a lot of This Rancid Mill. It’s where I finished writing This Rancid Mill and the coffee shop has this quirky punk metal theme to it. So, it was a good place to write a punk-centric novel.
DS: Yeah, it’s a pretty cool looking place. You briefly talked about This Rancid Mill. Can you describe it for people who are just learning about it? What inspired the book?
KD: Well, very specifically, the idea got into my head when I was in high school. There’s a long-time Chicago punk band called Alkaline Trio. And in the early 2000’s, they had this song called “Private Eye.” So, that kind of got the idea in my head, but it took me two decades to really tap into that concept that I’d had in my head for a while. And basically what it’s about is there’s a character, his name is Alex Damage, and he works as a small-time PI. He usually just does these favors for friends and lives off his reputation essentially of doing favors for people. The lead singer of his favorite band winds up dying and Alex looks into the possibility of foul play but starts uncovering some unsavory secrets about his hero. And that was informed when a lot of the “Me Too” stuff was going on at the time where all these people that I admired were secretly scumbags.
DS: So, do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is vastly different from you?
KD: Alex Damage isn’t different from me at all. Alex is probably who I would’ve been if I were alive in 1981. His sense of humor, his vocal tics are all very similar to my own.
Bad Chemicals at Liar’s Club.
DS: What is your favorite line or passage from this story?
KD: There’s a scene, spoiler-free, when Alex is interviewing somebody who is a drunken preacher who has lost his sanity and is obsessively burning toast in the hopes that the face of Jesus will appear in the toast. So, the line, that whole passage, that chapter is one of my favorites, and there’s a line in it that says, “I hope I never end up this way. Drunk and stinking 12 steps past crazy. Burning toast and looking for Jesus.”
Decker reading an excerpt from This Rancid Mill at Bucket O Blood.
DS: What would you like people to take away from your book?
KD: Don’t have heroes necessarily. Be your own hero. There’s a lot of political stuff going on in the last few years where there’s been controversy about statues being removed. And my philosophy generally at this point is just like, fuck statues. Let’s not build statues of anybody. So, this idea of over-idealizing people is a dangerous thing to do, and I think that’s a big takeaway from the book.
DS: Describe the process of imagining the story, writing it, editing it, and getting it published.
KD: Well, when I write stories, I create a character first and foremost, and I get a sense of who this character is. And then I put this character into a situation and I think, how would this character react to that situation? And then what is a realistic consequence of that reaction of the character’s actions that consequence introduces them into a new situation. How would they react to this new situation? And then so on and so forth until either the character evolves and learns a lesson or if I’m writing a Greek tragedy, fails to learn a lesson and meets a horrific end. In terms of what happened after that, I found a publisher. I ran into them at Riot Fest. I gave them the elevator pitch. They were interested. I sent them the manuscript and they accepted it. I worked with a woman named Cara Hoffman, herself, a renowned novelist. Her book, Running, is very good. I highly recommend it. So, I worked with her for a few months on making revisions. And then this whole process was almost a year and a half from acceptance to the book finally coming out.
DS: So, tell me about your publisher.
KD: My publisher is PM Press. They do a lot of fiction and nonfiction. They do a lot of crime fiction, punk rock history stuff, anarchist history stuff, and they’ve been great.
DS: So, how has working with them been so far?
KD: They put me on to different events that I can do. They help me announce stuff when it’s coming out. They go to a lot of events and sell their books at places like Printer’s Row, Riot Fest, and anarchist book fairs all across the country and world. So, they go directly to the people and sell books. And then there are bookstores all over the country that have relationships with them. So, it’s cool that they’re able to get it onto shelves in ways that I probably couldn’t on my own
PM Press books on display at Printer’s Row Lit Fest 2023.
DS: So, thanks for mentioning Printers Row Lit Fest, because that’s where we first met in September of last year. You were promoting This Rancid Mill. You were on a panel discussion with Tony Tovano of the Chicago punk band Vortis, Heather Augustyn, Jen B Larson, and our friend, Jim Ruland. What was that like?
KD: Well, the thing was my idea actually. PM Press was like, “Hey, Printers Row is looking for ideas for panels and stuff.” So, I submitted this idea for a punk rock author panel to PM press and then I didn’t hear anything about it but I reached out to my friend, Daniel Weizmann, and then I reached out to Jim Ruland at the suggestion of my publisher to just do this online thing together. I hadn’t heard anything back from Printers Row. But then about a month to three weeks before Printers Row, Printers Row called me and said, “Are you still interested in doing this? So, I was like, “Yeah.” And then a little phone tree was going, we got Jim Ruland, and then I had met Heather Augustyn at Livewire Lounge randomly one night. And so I was like, oh, I know this woman who might be interested in doing this. So, we reached out to her and then Jen B. Larson is also from Chicago. We threw this whole panel together about three weeks before the event and it turned out really great. I was reading everyone’s bio and it was funny because Jen B. Larson also is in a punk band and she’s a Chicago Public School teacher. So, I was like, wow. I said, this bio reads a lot like my own. When I met Jen, the first thing she said to me was, “Are we the same fucking person?” And I was like, “I said the same thing”. So, it was a lot of fun. Jim and I are still in touch, too.
Ruland (left) and Decker at the Printers Row Lit Fest.
DS: What is it like to promote a book?
KD: Exhausting. There’s no other word. It’s exhausting.
DS: What inspired you to become a writer?
KD: I originally wanted to do more with acting. When I was in high school, I was on the speech team and one of my events was a thing called original comedy where I had to write and perform an eight minute skit doing all the characters myself. And what would happen was I would often just get canceled out of final rounds or stuff like that. I’d get two really high marks and then a low mark from one judge. I have a drier sense of humor, so I didn’t have the wacky amount of energy that a lot of the other performers in that event had. It’s just my preferred style but I would consistently get feedback that said, finally an original comedy that’s actually original, and the writing was consistently praised. So, I was like, you know what? Maybe I’m more of a writer.
DS: Who are your three biggest literary influences?
KD: Probably Charles Bukowski. I know every white dude says Charles Bukowski but Charles Bukowski. Jennifer Egan is really good. And then especially when it comes to This Rancid Mill, Raymond Chandler.
KD: I’m currently working on a short story inspired by The Human Trials song “Cross Upon Your Chest.” I do have a draft of a sequel to This Rancid Mill that I’ve sent to PM Press and we’re going to give This Rancid Mill a little more time before there’s further discussion on that.
DS: When should we expect your next publication?
KD: Well, depending on when this comes out, I do have a short story coming out in the online magazine, Shotgun Honey, which specializes in crime flash fiction. So, all their stories are like 700 words or less but there is an Alex Damage story coming out in Shotgun Honey in late March. I think the tentative date’s the 28th.
DS: Cool. What are your proudest accomplishments as a writer?
KD: I mean, just finally getting a novel through a legit publisher. I’ve self published in the past but it feels a lot more real when you have a team with editors and copy editors and PR doing that stuff for you too. So, it’s always cool to just actually have finished something.
DS: Have you accomplished what you sought out to achieve?
KD: I mean, I got no complaints. If they were to tell me the world is ending tomorrow, I could be like, yeah, all right. Okay. I got enough of boxes ticked off that I’m comfortable with that. I’d like to do more with this Alex Damage world and with this character. So, seeing that play out in live action or something would probably be the next step trying to get finagle it to becoming a movie or a TV show.
DS: I’d definitely watch it! What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
KD: Write. Set aside times to do it. Don’t find the time. Make the time to do it. If you really want to do it, you’ll make the time is essentially what I’m saying. Just let the ideas flow out of you. Don’t worry if it’s good or not. That’s what the revision and editing process is for. So, just like don’t second guess yourself. Just let it flow out of you and fix it later.
DS: We also caught up with you when your band Bad Chemicals opened for Octopoulpe at Liar’s Club back in November. That was an awesome show. How do you feel about feel it? What were some of the highlights for you?
KD: Well, it’s always kind of hard for me to answer how I feel about a show that I perform. For me, performing is almost like an out of body experience. I go into a sort of fugue state and it almost feels like I’m something else or someone else when I’m up there. So, I don’t remember doing a lot of the things that I do on stage, whether or not I’ve had a drop of alcohol or anything, but it’s always very cathartic. Playing with Octopoulpe again was an absolute blast. He (Jean-Philippe “JP” Legal) and I were really close when we were both a part of the Korean scene and did dozens of shows together. I’ve even played with some of his older bands (MyManMike), and so it felt very nostalgic for me.
Decker (right) chatting up with Lejal of Octopoulpe before the show at Liar’s Club.
DS: What inspired you to make music?
KD: I think it’s one of those things that everybody always kind of dreams about doing. My brother, Kevin Decker, is actually a very gifted musician. He’s the one who has that. He and I co-wrote a lot of Bad Chemicals songs together and he’s the one who actually plays bass on the recordings but he moved to Amsterdam and so he flew out for the book release party to perform that. But I don’t know, it just always seems like something fun to do. And then it finally occurred to me after I started getting into punk rock that you don’t have to worry about whether it’s like good or not. You don’t have to wait until you’re ready to do it to do it. If you wait until you’re ready, you never will. So, you can just have fun with it. You don’t have to be like a hyper-talented, classically trained rock god.
DS: Who are your three biggest musical influences?
KD: Well, the two bands that I’ve been in, Food For Worms was my band in Korea and Bad Chemicals are all very influenced by early 1980’s hardcore punk. So, stuff like Black Flag and Youth Brigade and the Germs and stuff like that. The stuff that I’ve done is influenced by that.
DS: What are your proudest accomplishments as a musician?
KD: I don’t even know if I really identify as a musician. I’ve been called that before. I’m a vocalist. I don’t have any sort of training. I don’t even like calling myself a singer really. But recording things and just putting it out there is fun and an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s like just the idea that you can finish something, hold it up and say, “I made this.”
Bad Chemicals at Liar’s Club.
DS: What are your three favorite records?
KD: Oh, I’m going to give a different answer every day for this one. Of all time? Shoot. The Pogues’ Rum Sodomy & The Lash is a pretty important record for me. I would also say that another really important one is Black Flag’s Damaged. But the all time GOAT for me, it almost never moves, is At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command, for me, is still one of the greatest fucking records of all time.
DS: What five bands are you listening to this week?
KD: I’ve been on a big, We Were Promised Jetpacks trip lately. I’ve been listening to their These Four Wallsalbum a lot. There’s this band out of Belfast, Ireland called Enola Gay that I saw open for Viagra Boys back in September, that just blew my mind. I think they only have a seven or eight-track EP out so far but they just sound like The Jesus Lizard having rough sex with Joy Division. That band is going to…I’m following them a lot. So, those bands have been on a big rotation lately this week. There’s the new Alkaline Trio album (Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs) that just came out yesterday or the day before yesterday and they were an important band for me in high school. So, I’ve been listening to that. There’s a band called Miracle Blood that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. I’ve been much more into noise rock things lately, too.
DS: Very cool. What else would you like to share with Dying Scene’s readers?
KD: I mean, the most punk rock thing that a person can do is just make the thing that you want. If the thing that you want doesn’t exist or isn’t happening, be the one to do it. Oh, none of the magazines are writing about the bands you listen to. Well, then you fucking write about it. Put it on your blog. The music that you want to listen to…you’re not hearing a lot of that. Start a band. Don’t worry if it’s good or not. Just make things
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!
Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:
This week’s Record Radar starts with a bang! We’re pleased to bring you this exclusive first look at Savannah, Georgia Ramonescore troupe the Manarovs‘ brand new record Callsign:Proton. Mom’s Basement Records is releasing the LP on two sweet color variants (just look at ’em!), as well as black vinyl, and Memorable But Not Honorable will be releasing the album cassette.
Pre-orders go live Friday, March 15th. Mom’s Basement will have an exclusive T-Shirt bundle available on their webstore. Stardumb Records will have copies in Europe and Brassneck Records has our British friends covered. Here’s a few tracks from Callsign:Proton to tide you over:
You probably already heard about the new NOFX EP, but in case you didn’t already hear about the new NOFX EP, I’m here to tell you about the new NOFX EP! Did I mention there’s a new NOFX EP? Half Album follows Single Album and Double Album, featuring 5 songs that didn’t make the cut for either of those albums (which doesn’t inspire much confidence if I’m being frank). fatwreck.com and Fat’s EU/UK store are sold out of colored vinyl, but their Australian store still has some copies in stock. Black wax is still available everywhere. The lead single “I’m a Rat” is a song Fat Mike wrote, Hi-Standard covered(?), and now can be heard as performed by NOFX:
Smartpunk Records has brand new exclusive variants of Chicago punk legends 88 Fingers Louie‘s Behind Bars and Back on the Streets up for pre-order. Both are limited to 300 hand numbered copies and should ship in mid-May. I suppose it’s also worth noting these are the 2019 remix/remastered versions of these records. Grab your copies here and use code SPMAILINGLIST for 10% off your order. Also if anyone with the means to repress Thank You For Being a Friend happens to be reading this, I’d like to take a moment to let you know you should do that! No clue why I didn’t buy that fucking record before Bird Attack kicked the bucket.
Belgian melodic punks For I Am will be releasing their fourth album The Righteous & The Wicked on April 19th. The color variants for this one are bad ass and we like bad ass variants here on the Record Radar. The spiral variant is exclusive to Pee Records down undah, the multi-color splatter and bone color variants are available from Double Helix in the US and SBAM in Europe, and the green marble colored wax is for sale on the For I Am Bandcamp.
Speaking of SBAM, they’ve got some other cool shit on their store, so let’s talk about that! New variants of Guttermouth‘s Covered With Ants have popped up, seemingly unannounced. Click here to get it on purple and/or teal colored vinyl. Or wait a few weeks for SBAM’s next 60% off fire sale! lol
And completing the SBAM Records triple play is Orange County pop-punk band Taken Days, who just released their brand new album Any Minute. Get it on “sun” and/or “moon” colored vinyl (limited to 150 copies each) riiiiight here.
Canadian skate punks Handheld are celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a new live album! Live At 25 was recorded last October at The Revive in Waterloo, Ontario and is due out on May 10th. Thousand Islands Records has the “Candyland” color variant up for pre-order on their store. If you want the “Sassy Salmon Slap” color variant, that one’s only gonna be available at shows.
Ink Bomb is a cool-ass punk band from the Netherlands and they’ve got a new record coming very soon! Saudade is due out on April 3rd and you can grab it on blue colored wax here. Check out the latest single “Pressure Cooker” and head over to Bandcamp for more. These guys (and girl) are great! Highly recommended listening for those who share my appreciation of No Fun At All.
Italy’s Hey Suburbia Records is releasing San Francisco hardcore punk band Spitboy’s 1994 compilation album on vinyl for the first time, with 500 copies on red colored wax. This one’s due out April 15th and you can pre-order it here. The Forced Exposure distro carries all of Hey Suburbia’s releases in the US, so if you wanna save on shipping wait til they get some copies in stock.
South Carolina hardcore veterans Stretch Arm Strong surprise-released a new EP this week. The Revealing is the band’s first new music since 2005. There’s a grand total of 9 variants for this one (not quite as many as the new Green Day record, but still a fuckload). Usually bands / labels make it easy to find all the places to buy retailer exclusive variants by setting up a Linktree or some shit, but they did not do that. Lucky for you, I like wasting my time on pointless shit, so I’ve collected links to where you can buy all these variants. Here ya go:
Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya next time!
Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!
Happy International Women’s Day, dear readers! Now, I’m aware that maybe we’re in the minority when reading our beautiful blog. Still, it’s nice to celebrate the achievements of those who work beside me and those I get to speak to on group chat every day. This year, in addition to celebrating the women I admire, […]
Happy International Women’s Day, dear readers! Now, I’m aware that maybe we’re in the minority when reading our beautiful blog. Still, it’s nice to celebrate the achievements of those who work beside me and those I get to speak to on group chat every day.
This year, in addition to celebrating the women I admire, both in music and my private life, I asked my amazing colleagues if they wanted to share a quote on what International Women’s Day means to them. Mary and Meredith, as excellent as they are, had time to pass something on to me, so I had something more than just music and my anecdote on what International Women’s Day means.
So, let’s start with our lovely Meredith, as many know. She’s one of the many talented photographers on the team. Also, Meredith is easily one of the nicest people around and sincere. She lends an ear if you feel overwhelmed and has brilliant taste in movies and TV shows.
“International Women’s Day gives me an opportunity to reflect on what I’ve done as a photojournalist, and on the women who I looked at for inspiration for as I came up as a photojournalist, my mentors. But it’s also a chance to look forward to those coming up now, in both photography and also the music scene I document.
I’m also very grateful that Dying Scene’s Team Chicago has some terrific shooters in Mary and Fleurette. We all have different styles, and that’s what makes it great. The same goes for the women of punk rock in Chicago, including Claudia Guajardo in Shitizen; Traci Trouble & Lucy Dekay, who make up 2/3 of Aweful; and Deanna Belos, a.k.a. Sincere Engineer. I’ve documented the groups’ rises for several years as they’ve taken over the Chicago scene. In some cases, they are taking on national and international tours. These are women-fronted/mixed-gender bands with very different musical and performance styles. However, these groups are each powerful in their ways, and just three examples among many in the Chicago Punk Scene. It is a very exciting time to document this scene.”
And there’s Mary; I don’t know how to describe Mary because, truth be told, we haven’t had the chance to talk. But from what I’ve seen on Instagram, we have so much in common. I’m kidding. Mary is energetic. She’s hard to describe before; she is well-spoken, funny, humble, and willing to let us ramble on about everything and nothing. I admire her, plus we have a super funny and low-key embarrassing story that we’ll tell one day.
“Happy International Women’s Day!
“I’m a feminist through and through. A tattoo on my bicep represents the political slogan/poem/song “Bread and Roses” that originated from Helen Todd, an American women’s suffrage and worker’s rights activist. I also absolutely love photographing fierce femme-fronted bands! My favorites include Jigsaw Youth, Destroy Boys, and War on Women. It’s great to see so many more women being represented at punk shows, not just on stage but also in the audience and photo pit!”
And then there’s me. I don’t like talking about myself, so I’ll skip that part. But I do know what International Women’s Day means to me. It wasn’t until five years ago that I really started to observe and focus on it. Hell, I wouldn’t even have called myself a feminist because, as embarrassing as it will read, I thought I wanted the 1950s lifestyle, and honestly, maybe that’s what others wanted for me, too.
I have two kids; my firstborn is a boy, and my youngest is a girl. But when I found out I was pregnant with a girl, I was scared as hell because I knew exactly what she would have to go through and what challenges she could potentially face in life if I didn’t get my bullshit together and start doing my research. Suppose I didn’t get out there and start fighting. Luckily, my pregnancy with my daughter was rough, the constant sickness, the bleeding, and… I think we get the picture. But she became the reason for many things; one of them is why I have 800 different jobs in music, stopped my day job, and decided to work harder than I ever have. Truthfully, I don’t want her or anyone else to work as hard or as much as I see those strong, independent women around me do. I wouldn’t mind fighting to make her life, whatever she decides to do, just a little easier. Also, show her how sisterhood isn’t a competition but a journey you have alongside your best people. That was one thing that took me years to understand: being number one or two means nothing if you’re alone.
So, how is it being a woman in music? From time to time, it can be challenging. I’m always happy for a challenge, but I’m extra excited when people tell me I can’t do it. And in music, I have some of the most inspiring people to look up to on my journey. From Patti Smith, Lana Del Rey, Dolly Parton, and Charlotte Sands, Andrea from the Danish band Situationsfornærmelse, Mannequin Pussy, and Stevie Nicks to a more personal note, that some people always attack me for, but they have shown me what real sisterhood means Annette, Aus, Sidsel, Stine, Salina, Nikoleta, actually every woman that celebrates other women’s success, achievements, those who inspire and include other’s.
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN WITH MARY AND MEREDITH FROM DYING SCENE. COVER PICTURE BY MARY SUNDE OF WAR ON WOMEN
Happy Friday, comrades! We’ve got another fun and exciting album debut for your glorious earholes today. It comes to us from one of my favorite places on earth – Asbury Park, New Jersey! If you’re not familiar, Bristler are an AP-based trio that are essentially the brainchild of Rudy Meier, whom you might remember from […]
Happy Friday, comrades!
We’ve got another fun and exciting album debut for your glorious earholes today. It comes to us from one of my favorite places on earth – Asbury Park, New Jersey!
If you’re not familiar, Bristler are an AP-based trio that are essentially the brainchild of Rudy Meier, whom you might remember from his days in Wetbrain. He’s now teamed up with Biff Swenson and Dana Yurcisin from Yawn Mower, and together they’ve released their debut full length, Cascades At Play. The album is out today on Mint 400 Records, and it’s a great way to kick off springtime in the Northeast if you ask us. Check it out below or wherever you get your music nowadays!
Ahoy, comrades! We’re stoked to share another cool new track with you today, this time from Brooklyn’s own Nihiloceros! This punk/grunge trio is one of the hardest-working bands in NYC. They help keep the NYC punk scene together with their heavy show schedule and their relentless support for other bands who frequent venues like Our Wicked […]
Ahoy, comrades!
We’re stoked to share another cool new track with you today, this time from Brooklyn’s own Nihiloceros! This punk/grunge trio is one of the hardest-working bands in NYC. They help keep the NYC punk scene together with their heavy show schedule and their relentless support for other bands who frequent venues like Our Wicked Lady and Arlene’s Grocery.
The new track is called “Skipper,” and it’s a gritty punk tune with dark imagery about an unnamed boat, traveling on the thin line between life and death. Lyrically, singer Mike Borchardt uses classic mythologies to ponder the idea of eternity. Sonically, the crunching guitars and drums (as perfectly captured by Jeff Berner at Studio G in Brooklyn) bring us back down to earth (and maybe even a fun, raucous moshpit).
If you’re in the greater NYC metropolitan area, you can catch Nihiloceros this Friday, March 8, at Main Drag in Brooklyn with Desert Sharks, a Very Special Episode and Lethered.
Dying Scene sat down with Ganser at the Empty Bottle ahead of their first show of 2024. Openers included Martin Atkins DJ Set, Plum, and Patter. Ganser consists of Brian Cundiff (drums), Alicia Gaines (bass, backing vocals, and effects), Sophie Sputnik (lead vocals, synth, and guitar), and Charlie Landsman (guitar). This interview has been edited […]
Dying Scene sat down with Ganser at the Empty Bottle ahead of their first show of 2024. Openers included Martin Atkins DJ Set, Plum, and Patter. Ganser consists of Brian Cundiff (drums), Alicia Gaines (bass, backing vocals, and effects), Sophie Sputnik (lead vocals, synth, and guitar), and Charlie Landsman (guitar).
Left to Right. Charlie, Brian, Alicia, and Sophie.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Dying Scene: Happy New Year. Thank you all for taking the time to sit with me. I appreciate it. Tell me who is in the band.
Ganser: Brian. Alicia. Sophie. Charlie.
DS: How’s the new year treating you so far?
AG: I feel like we’re just collecting ourselves. We’re working on a new record and so things kind of drop off during the holidays, but now we’re coming in and picking it up again. We’re playing some of the new songs tonight actually.
DS: Oh, exciting!
SS: Three!
AG: Four, I think.
BC: Four that aren’t on a record.
AG: Something. Three or four.
DS: So will you guys be touring in 2024?
AG: Yes.
BC: Yeah. We have some things coming up that aren’t announced yet but we’re looking forward to it. Some bigger venues and we’re going to be swooping from the north, south, and then east, so it’ll be a nice little trip for us.
DS: Very cool. So, how was 2023 for you guys?
CL: It was full of a lot of ups and downs, as I’m sure a lot of people’s years were. But, yeah, it was an exciting year.
AG: Well, we have Sophie, now.
BC: The first full year of Sophie.
CL: Oh yeah, I guess that’s the first full year. A year of Sophie.
BC: Yeah, a couple tours. So, that was cool. One early in the year and one down to Austin in October.
CL: We haven’t killed each other. Not once.
SS: Not even a little bit.
CL: Yeah, not once.
DS: So, I first saw you guys at the Bikini Kill show (April 22, 2023 at The Salt Shed in Chicago). I saw you playing and I was like, oh my gosh, I would love to interview this band. So, I am really happy to be here.
SS: That was such a fun show.
DS: Yes, it was. So, what was that like for you guys?
AG: Well, it was kind of crazy because Sophie joining us has kind of aligned with some of these bigger opportunities that we’ve had. And so, correct me if I’m wrong, Sophie, but I think that was the third show you were playing with us?
SS: Yeah, I want to say it was the second, right? Well, the first one was Sleeping Village.
SS: Yeah, I just personally had never played a venue that big either, ever. So, it was really cool.
BC: And the venue was great. We had…a lot of the staff from here [Empty Bottle] works there, too. Or they moved there when that venue opened. So, we knew a lot of people. So, it was sort of like a bigger version of this in some ways.
DS: That’s awesome. Yeah, it was a great show. You guys were awesome, awesome, awesome. (Sophie) you came from another band. What band was it?
SS: I have another project called Waltzer that I still do for the most part but this is my focus now.
DS: Who would you guys most like to work with? This could be collaborators, record labels, producers, or remixers.
AG: This is going to sound strange. There are definitely musicians that we’d want to work with and we’ve worked with Angus Andrew in the past from Liars, which felt like a dream come true. There’s certainly more like that but I think something that we all kind of share is that we all love comedy and every once in a while we hear that a comedian likes us. I personally would love to do something with Eric Andre. That would be very cool. Like Adult Swim…that kind of stuff.
CL: From Chicago. Or started doing comedy in Chicago.
BC: Yeah, that’d be cool.
DS: So, who are your biggest influences?
CL: I think as a band, we all have different biggest influences. For me it’s like a lot of noise rock and The Birthday Party. A lot of classical composers.
SS: It’s so strange. I feel like when I was thinking about wanting to do music, I was listening to stuff that’s completely different than what I was listening to now. I was really inspired by Natalie Cole and jazz and Bonnie Raitt, gospel, and shit like that. But then…like now it’s, I don’t know…lyrically I really like Fiona Apple.
AG: Nobody likes Fiona Apple anymore.
CL: I like Fiona Apple.
SS: I still really like Fiona Apple and I really like Karen O. Her stage presence and stuff like that.
AG: Gorillaz. Brian and I probably share Peter Gabriel.
BC: Some of the older stuff.
DS: There are a lot of amazing bands here in Chicago. You don’t have to travel very far at all for good bands. So, who should we look out for?
AG: I mean, immediately we’re going to say, “ONO.”
CL: Yeah. For sure.
AG: ONO. They are legendary. They are everything. Two guys who had a band in the eighties and then they retired for a while and then they came back and recruited some of the younger musicians to be with them. But it’s kind of post punk avant garde industrial gospel. It’s crazy. If you ever see them on a bill, you have to go.
CL: Yeah. It’s the advice we give to everybody that just moved to Chicago is you literally have to see ONO.
BC: I haven’t seen them playing around too much.
SS: I’ve never seen them.
AG: Oh, they’re so good. If you see their name on a bill, you have to go.
CL: It’s non-negotiable.
BC: Cancel your plans.
DS: So, how about outside of Chicago?
AG: I’m thinking about people that we’ve played with. Gilla Band from Ireland.
CL: There’s just literally so many incredible bands now. Just really, really good bands. It’s everywhere. It’s like a dime a dozen. It’s great. It also sucks.
AG: Should all fight to the death.
SS: There’s also a really cool band called Pelvis Wrestley from Austin.
AG: That’s a good name.
SS: But I really like their stuff. I could see them doing pretty well.
DS: So what five bands are you guys listening to this week?
SS: Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s about these two people who fell in love and they were scientists of volcanoes. I forget what that is called. But the soundtrack is so good. It’s insane. So, the soundtrack of the Fire of Love.
BC: I always hate being put on the spot like this because I can never think of…
SS: You see, Brian, you know it’s Rush. You know it’s Rush.
DS: So do you guys have anything else you’d like to share with the Dying Scene’s readers?
AG: I think we’re going to try to get on the road a good amount this year as much as our schedules will allow. So, I would say just keep an eye on us because we always love to meet new people and go to new places. So, I think we’re going to do some of that this year.
Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Wasting Time is a melodic punk band that cites influences like MxPx, Alkaline Trio, and No Use For A Name. Their new record Hurry Up and Wait is due out April 12th on People of Punk Rock Records and we’re stoked to bring you the exclusive premiere of the album’s lead […]
Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Wasting Time is a melodic punk band that cites influences like MxPx, Alkaline Trio, and No Use For A Name. Their new record Hurry Up and Wait is due out April 12th on People of Punk Rock Records and we’re stoked to bring you the exclusive premiere of the album’s lead single. Check out the music video for “How Much I Miss Those Days” below!
“How Much I Miss Those Days is a reflection on the times spent with childhood friends growing up – where we were, where we are and how we got there. A lot of people can relate to the realization that some of those days are never coming back. All you really can do is reminisce and talk about how much you miss the good old times. -Wayne Gretzky” -Michael Scott
Hurry Up and Wait is available to pre-order on Laguna Blue colored vinyl (ltd. 300 copies), CD(!), and digital download on the People of Punk Rock webstore. They’ve got a bunch of other awesome records you should buy while you’re stopping by as well. Also, I almost forgot to mention Wasting Time will be playing a record release show at Bovine Sex Club in Toronto on April 13th.
This premiere is brought to you in part by Punk Rock Radar. If you’d like your band’s music video to be premiered by Dying Scene and Punk Rock Radar, go here and follow these instructions. You’ll be on your way to previously unimagined levels of fame and fortune in no time!
