Hot on the heels of their long awaited 2023 self-titled debut, pop-punk supergroup The Phase Problem is back with their sophomore effort The Power of Positive Thinking, out now on Lavasocks Records (US), Brassneck Records (UK), and Stardumb Records (EU). It’s a bad ass record and we’re quite excited to be bringing you the exclusive premiere of this music video […]
Hot on the heels of their long awaited 2023 self-titled debut, pop-punk supergroup The Phase Problem is back with their sophomore effort The Power of Positive Thinking, out now on Lavasocks Records (US), Brassneck Records (UK), and Stardumb Records (EU). It’s a bad ass record and we’re quite excited to be bringing you the exclusive premiere of this music video for one of the tracks – “Shadow of Me”, to be specific. Check that shit out below and go here to buy the record.
I referred to The Phase Problem as a “pop-punk supergroup” in the previous paragraph; allow me to justify that statement. In addition to being fronted by Squirtgun‘s Flav Giorgini, the band also features Fraser Murderburger (The Murderburgers, Wrong Life, etc.) on guitar, drummer Alex Keane (Roach Squad, The Murderburgers, City Mouse), and bassist John Bonnar (Haiver, Piss Bath, Paws). What’s more, The Power of Positive Thinking includes guest appearances from Heather Tabor of the Teen Idols and original Squirtgun frontman Matt Hart, among others.
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!
Bossy D is hitting the coast and will be seeing many corners of Oregon and California as they continue to support Bouts with Bummers. Straight from the guys themselves: Tour! May! Oregon! California! Party! Bossy D is hitting some West Coast dates on our A May Zing Journey! Check the dates below and find full […]
Bossy D is hitting the coast and will be seeing many corners of Oregon and California as they continue to support Bouts with Bummers. Straight from the guys themselves:
Tour! May! Oregon! California! Party! Bossy D is hitting some West Coast dates on our A May Zing Journey! Check the dates below and find full info/tickets where available atbossdaughter.com
Also announced recently will be their return to Gainsville in October for FEST 22, their 7th year throwing down with Floridians. So catch them on tour or at your local punk fest, they’re always a great time!
On 09 March 2024, Otoboke Beaver headlined a sold-out show at Thalia Hall in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, with Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, and Ovef Ow opening the show! Here’s how it looked! Prior to the show, Dying Scene (Fleurette Estes) and Kyle Decker interviewed Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, where they also took some […]
Prior to the show, Dying Scene (Fleurette Estes) and Kyle Decker interviewed Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, where they also took some photographs. Check out the interview below and go check them out!!!
Megan, Meena, and MJ at Thalia Hall Lounge Room.
Interview has been shortened for clarity and length.
Dying Scene: Tell me about Drinking Boys and Girls Choir. Introduce yourselves and who you are, where you’re from, and your members.
Myeong-jin Kim (MJ): Drinking Boys and Girls Choir is from South Korea, and we’re based in Daegu City, South Korea. I’m MJ and I’m from Daegu City. I was born in Pohang but currently live in Daegu City. I play drums and sing.
Meena Bae (MB): I am Meena, I’m the bassist and I also sing.
Megan Nisbet (MN): My name’s Megan. I live in South Korea, but I’m from Glasgow, Scotland and I play guitar and sing in the band.
MB: Yeah, we write our own songs, and every member contributes.
MJ: Yeah.
MB: There is no main songwriter.
DS: So, how did you all meet? And were you friends before joining this band?
MB: Yes. MJ and I were friends from around 2007. Yeah, she was young, just 20, and she just joined the university. At the time she was in a band named the Odeum Starz and it was a cute pop punk band and they just started making their own songs because they couldn’t play well enough to cover other songs. So, it was really kind of cute, but they ended the group because…
MJ: Army service in Korea and the job career thing. After that, we started a girl band, Chicken and Mayo ABC.
MB: Chicken and Mayo ABC. A few years later we decided to do a band again. It is Drinking Boys and Girls Choir.
MJ: Yes.
“Daegu City is conservative, and my parents are super conservative. Nowadays, almost all young people really just like K-pop music, the K-pop scene, and K-pop culture. And in Korea, as you know, the mainstream doesn’t play punk music. They just stream the K-pop music, K-pop things. So that’s why young people can’t know about their taste in music”.
– Meena Bae
DS: Do you still play and do things with the other band?
MB: No.
DS: Do you ever want to try to relive that one?
MB: No. We’re done. That’s just our memory. We don’t want to make it again. We want to make new things.
DS: How would you describe your music? And who are your influences?
MN: We describe the music as being fast, aggressive guitar sound, intense drumming, and a powerful bass tone but with angelic vocals over the top of everything. Three-part harmonies.
MB: I really like harmony. I just sing by myself, and they just start to make harmonies every time, every time…
MN: I go low, you go high.
Kyle Decker (KD): For the choir part…
“Earlier in the afternoon, we ate a really good lunch with Kyle at Bang Bang Pie, and I really liked that quiche and chicken pot pie and the other dessert pie. I really liked that. And maybe tomorrow we have lots of time before the show, so I hope to go to some good place and maybe I believe that he will introduce us to so many good things there”.
-Meena Bae
(L-R: Meena, MJ, Megan, and Kyle)
DS: So, you have been on tour with Otoboke Beaver. Did you know them before the tour? How has it been becoming friends with them on the tour?
MB: Yeah, we are label mates. We are signed to Damnably with them. The Damnably label is based in London. The first time we met them was in 2019 at South by Southwest and then we started doing tours together.
MN: Yeah. With this lineup, we’ve done two tours with them. We did the UK last year in May and then this year here in the US for the first time. And we get on very well with them. They’re very friendly, lovely people.
MB: Yes. We really like each other.
MB: Yeah, we’ve done more shows with them, we even did a show in Korea with them. Before Megan joined, we went to Japan to celebrate their new album. In 2019 and 2020 we toured together in the UK and the Netherlands. So, we really love our songs and our vibe and really respect ourselves and each other. It’s a really good vibe.
KD: The scene has shifted since I left Daegu City, I know that, but what is it like being the only punk band in a pretty conservative city? How many people come out to shows?
MB: Yeah, Daegu City is conservative, and my parents are super conservative. Nowadays, almost all young people really just like K-pop music, the K-pop scene, and K-pop culture. And in Korea, as you know, the mainstream doesn’t play punk music. They just stream the K-pop music, K-pop things. So that’s why young people can’t know about their taste in music. Do you know what I mean?
MN: They don’t have many options for different types of music to listen to because it’s pretty much K-pop or bust. So, they don’t know how to find new artists to listen to and stuff like that. So, at our shows, the audience is, on average, older, late twenties, early thirties.
DS: So, I heard you guys are paving the way for K-punk.
MB: Yeah, so we use the “K.” Actually, we really hate the “K” things, but we started to use the K-punk because it makes it easier to find our music. And so, we are trying to reach out to younger audiences. So, when we put on our own shows in Korea, we give free tickets to underage youth. But yeah, it’s hard to get a crowd. We never get a crowd of even 100 people in Daegu.
KD: Do you feel like you’re getting more audience response in the United States and Europe than in Korea?
MJ: So, we’re getting bigger in US, Europe, and the UK but not in Korea.
MB: So, sometimes we get invited to the (Asia Cultural Center) World Music Festival in Korea and so many members from the audience have told me, “Oh, I didn’t know you are from Daegu. I live in Daegu, but I don’t know you.” So, every crowd has told me that. I don’t know how we can grow our audience in Daegu. Yeah, I don’t know.
MJ killing it on the drums!!!
DS: I’ve been following you on social media and so many of the shows are sold out. What does that feel like?
MN: It feels like a huge opportunity really for us. And so far, the audience response has been positive. They come to the merch table, and they tell us how much they enjoyed the show and it’s really encouraging. So, I think we’ve done the right thing coming here.
DS: I absolutely love the fact that every time I look on my Instagram page you’ve had another sold-out show. I just think that’s lovely.
MJ: Yeah.
DS: Tours can be busy. Have you had time to do any sightseeing while you’re in any of the cities?
MJ: Actually, we drive ourselves so we can see a lot.
DS: At night?
MN: Actually, during the day. So, when we were driving through Salt Lake City and places like that, we got the full view of everything. Beautiful, snowy mountains and everything like that. So, it’s been lovely. As for sightseeing, we had time in Seattle because we started the tour there and we visited pretty much most of the tourist spots in Seattle, like the Space Needle and MoPOP museum and everything.
MJ: The Sub Pop store.
MN: The Sub Pop clothing store.
MJ: And KEXP.
MJ: And the market.
MN: The seafood markets. Pike Place.
MB: Pike Place Market. Chicago is really the second city we’ve been able to stay in for a few days. Earlier in the afternoon, we ate a really good lunch with Kyle at Bang Bang Pie, and I really liked that quiche and chicken pot pie and the other dessert pie. I really liked that. And maybe tomorrow we have lots of time before the show, so I hope to go to some good place and maybe I believe that he will introduce us to so many good things there.
DS: There are so many amazing places to eat and to see. Besides playing amazing shows with great crowds, what else do you want to accomplish while you’re in the States?
MJ: Maybe work on our next tour…
MN: While we’re here now, I want to have a good bond with the four people in our party…make some close relationships. I want to make some fans in every city and make a good impression on people by being very kind and friendly and open. That’s what I want to do.
DS: Being from South Korea, do you feel responsible for representing your country?
MB: Yes.
DS: What do you want your audience to know about South Korea?
MB: Yeah, Korea is not just K-pop. Yeah, I hope for them to know about that. We have so many subcultures. And really everything is small because Korea is small, but I hope the audience knows there’s more to Korea than just K-pop. I want the audience to think about Korea a little bit positively.
MJ: Yeah.
DS: If anyone were to visit your hometown of Daegu City, what are the top three recommendations you have for them to do or see?
MB: Yeah, like our song that we call the “BIG NINE, Let’s Go,” we introduced three locations. The first one is Daemyeong-dong…it’s really a music neighborhood…in the music scene. There is Club Led Zeppelin. And there is a famous beautiful university there called Keimyung University. Even New Jeans’s music video (for the song “Ditto”) was filmed there. And so many famous Korean dramas were filmed there. So, I want to introduce Club Heavy. They remodeled it and the rooftop is beautiful. Sometimes we have acoustic shows on the roof when the weather is good. Because we have the four seasons and the summer is extremely hot and winter is extremely cold, so we cannot do anything outside in the summer or winter. So, we have just a few days we can do rooftop shows. So, I want to recommend it. And second location is downtown Daegu – Dongseong-ro. And the third one, if you want to go to Suseongmot (Suseong Lake) you can take the monorail. It’s a beautiful lake with many restaurants, but it is a little bit expensive.
Actually, I say in the song (“BIG NINE, Let’s Go”), “makchang, soondae, joonghwa bibimbap.” It is really famous food in Daegu. It’s not vegan but… yeah. And so nowadays I’m trying to say the vegan food in the middle of singing. So sometimes I say different foods.
MN: Changing the lyrics of the song on the fly.
DS: Tell me about your favorite performance as a group so far.
MN: Why don’t we talk about the performance from this tour that we liked?
MJ: For perfection level, LA. For enjoyment level, Pioneertown.
MN: We played well in LA. We just were on the same wavelength.
MB: The zone!
MN: We were in the zone, and everybody had a really good time. We felt nervous before the show, but as soon as we got up there, we just really locked in.
MJ: So much fun! So much fun! So much fun!
MN: Pioneertown was like this little cowboy-themed town in the desert somewhere in California. We liked that show because it was a smaller, more intimate venue, but it was packed. And, we’re used to playing in a smaller club setting, so it was more comfortable for us, and we could let go and just have a good time.
MB: Yeah!
DS: What’s next for you? Are you working on new music? Do you have any tours planned?
MB: Yeah, during this tour we have had a good response from the audience and really every city’s promoter has been really impressed by us. So, they’re really starting to focus on us. So, maybe we could headline our own U.S. tour later this year. And I hope we could also tour the UK and Europe. We are also planning an Asian tour, so maybe we will visit Taiwan and Japan this year. And we really tried to make a new album, our third album, last year. We’ve already recorded eight songs, so we must finish our third album this year.
MN: We just released a new single and I think that it showcases the new direction of the band, the new influence maybe that I’m bringing to the table, and we are pulling out of each other. So, you can hear that in the new single. Three-part harmonies. Really fast, aggressive but angelic vocals over the top. The song is called History. And then we’re working on the new album, hopefully.
MJ: Yeah, and we have a live album soon to be released, maybe in the summer.
MB: We just recorded the live album in January.
DS: Oh, that would be exciting.
KD: Megan, how did you become involved in the band? Because I’ve known Drinking Boys and Girls Choir for a while, and I’ve known them to have a rotating cast, so to speak. How did you join the band and what new directions and influences are you bringing to it?
MN: Right. So, I really love indie music and I’m a huge music fan and I’ve always played guitar. But since I was like 14. And, so, I was just watching KEXP at home in South Korea one night by myself with a bottle of wine. And, so, I’m scrolling through, and I saw Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and I look at the band name and the thumbnail and I’m thinking they look Korean. I think maybe they’re Korean, so let’s check it out. So, I clicked it, it was their session that they did in 2021.
MN: I totally fell in love with the band, their appearance, the energy, and everything. So, okay, I followed them on Instagram and everything like that.
MB: We put up a notice that we were looking for new guitarist.
MN: I thought I don’t have anything to lose, I might as well. So, I sent them an email and the rest is history.
“We describe the music as being fast, aggressive guitar sound, intense drumming, and a powerful bass tone but with angelic vocals over the top of everything. Three-part harmonies”.
– Megan Nesbit
DS: So, have you guys toured Scotland, yet?
MN: Yes, we did.
MB: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
DS: How was that experience?
MJ: We met Megan’s parents, cousins, aunties, everyone…
MB: I feel like every town was Megan’s town because people came to see her.
MN: They were happy to meet the girls. They were kissing and hugging them. I was delighted to introduce them to my family as well.
MB: Yeah, it was. And because we were born in Daegu and we’ve lived in Daegu our whole lives. So, our parents or family culture is not close to each other in Daegu, and I felt the love from her family. So, I was so happy to be there.
MN: It was great.
MJ: Yeah. Maybe more than my parents.
MB: Yes, exactly.
MJ: They loved me more than my parents.
MB: Yes, exactly. Yeah, she calls her father often and every time he asks about how the girls are doing.
MJ: Yeah, it’s like a family now.
MB: And he bought lots of beers for us. Yeah, we had a really good time. Maybe if we can arrange our schedule for the next tour, I want to make Glasgow our last city. I want to spend more time in Glasgow after the tour. Yeah, I hope.
MN: I would love to show them not just Glasgow but other cities and other more rural northern areas in Scotland because it’s a beautiful country. I think they would love it.
DS: What advice do you have for musicians who are starting out? And those who are touring other countries?
MJ: Workout.
MB: Yes. It’s important.
MJ: Yeah, physical workout is important. It makes you healthier, physically, and mentally.
MB: Yeah.
MN: What do you think?
MB: Don’t think about it, just do it.
MN: This is where you get the personalities of each of us, right? She says work out is a good and logical answer. Don’t think about it, just do it. Okay. And then for me I would say be personable, be friendly, be honest. Wear your heart on your sleeve and go for it.
DS: Great. Thank you. What five bands are you guys listening to while on tour?
MJ: For me, I like Jacob de Haan, a composer from the Netherlands. I love that man.
MN: In the van, we listen to music mostly in the van because that’s the best time for it. So, I guess I’ve been listening to Bouncing Souls a lot. Hot Water Music…
MN: Smoking Goose. I love that band. That’s a Korean band. Okay. They’re from a city called Daejeon and they play skate punk music. They’re a three-piece. They also play fast, have catchy hooks, and play three-part harmonies as well. So, I guess I love that band. And we are three girls. They’re three boys and they’re cool.
MN. Jaurim. Good, classic Korean rock band. They’re still active today. Very kind. Nice people.
MB: Yeah, they’re super rock stars in Korea.
MN: Super rock stars.
MB: We did we say five? Alice in Chains, The Offspring, Bouncing Souls…Tyler Langley.
MB: So, I’d like to introduce some of our friends in Korea. We really like Billy Carter. They are really…blues…
KD: They’re like psychedelic blues, but they’re rooted in the punk scene, too.
MN: They have a punk vibe as well. But it is like bluesy.
MB: Yeah. A really good band. My friends Ohchill and they released a new album last year. And I want to recommend Smoking Goose as well. Who else?
MJ: We’d like to introduce some other Daegu bands named Sindosi. They’re a post-punk band. There’s a legendary band from Daegu called March Kings. They’re not a punk band but we recommend them. There are female-fronted bands called Igloo and Honz.
DS: What else would you like to share with Dying Scene’s readers?
MB: Yeah, just come to our show when we come back here again. And please buy our merch.
MN: Please check out our music here. Come to the show. And then if you do come to the show, come, and say hi. Because we are selling the merch personally ourselves. We love to talk to people and sign things and take pictures and everything. So, don’t be shy and just come say hello. That’s it.
MB: Thank you so much.
DS: Thank you.
Check out the Otoboke Beaver, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, and Ovef Ow Photo Galleries below and check out the link for The Korean Times collab with Fleurette Estes and Kyle Decker.
It’s been a minute since I did an interview, and we are definitely in for a treat today. Let me introduce you to The Real You, an emo pop-punk band from Florida. They have just released a new single, so I thought it was time for a little treat and to catch up with Tyler […]
It’s been a minute since I did an interview, and we are definitely in for a treat today. Let me introduce you to The Real You, an emo pop-punk band from Florida. They have just released a new single, so I thought it was time for a little treat and to catch up with Tyler from the band to give us some insight into who they are and how they came to be. And remember to check out “Lackadaisical” below!
DS: HI, HI! How are you? Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello, I’m doing great today. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Tyler. I play guitar and do some lead and background vocals in an alternative emo band called The Real You.
DS: What inspired your name?
We got our name from a few different places. The first that I could think of was we had this song in the early stages of our band called Talk is Half the Game. It is still out on Spotify if anybody wants to listen to it. Still, we had written it before we had decided on a name, and in the bridge, there’s this lyric that says, “It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. Don’t let them change the real you. ”We were like “Oh, that could be our band name.” we also did this thing where we looked through the episode lists of some of our favorite cartoon shows to try to see if we could find a name that way because, at the time there was this band that we all kind of liked called trash boat which, I guess we don’t know for sure if their name originated from this. Still, there’s an episode of Regular Show, a Cartoon Network show titled Trash Boat. So we ended up finding an episode of a show called Adventure Time that was also titled “The Real You,” so we just decided that that would be the name.
DS: So, how did you start? What got you into music?
So, I have always played music throughout my life. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 11, so it’s been a long time. I was in a band in Middle School. My high school offered a class called Music Techniques, which was otherwise known as rockband. In that class, we learned a set list and performed it at the end of the semester in the bands that we were broken up into at the beginning of the semester. It was a lot of fun, and we eventually did some concerts where we wrote our original music, which was also super fun. Some of my first songs that I ever wrote was performing them at those concerts.
I also took orchestra and learned how to play the cello, but all that boring stuff aside, what got me into this kind of music and playing in this band was due to our vocalist, Dennis. We went to the same high school, so we knew of each other, but he was in a band called Growing Pains, and he asked me to fill in for a show for them. We ended up not playing that show, but he and I wrote an EP together in his garage and tried to record it, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out. At that point, though, we had been kind of forming all new members. Everybody that was a part of growing pains was leaving, and we just decided that we were going to create a new project called the real you, and then we started from scratch essentially. Dennis was a big factor in getting me into this kind of music. I had always had these angsty kind of sad feelings, and I never really knew what to do with them, but once I discovered this genre of music, I instantly felt at home. I loved going out to shows, especially local shows. Still, like I experienced my first Warped Tour, I think, in 2016, and then I went every year after that, which was only until 2018, unfortunately, but that was how I got my start in this scene.
DS: Who are some big influences in music, but also non-musical influences?
Some of my biggest influences are that it’s a tough one; it changes all the time, but I guess for me, the one that stays pretty consistent is Citizen. I think they have an amazing discography and an amazing sound. I’m definitely more of an album listener. I listen to albums in full rather than just random songs or playlists, and a citizen record from front to back is an experience that I don’t think any other band can replicate in the scene. I love the classics like The Story So Far. I’m also a big Movements fan, and that’s another one that’s been consistent for me. I’d say lately, I’ve been getting into a lot more like shoegaze bands or shoegaze adjacent/grungy bands. I love Basement, I love balance and composure. Yeah, I’ll just stop at those. That’s enough to get the idea. As far as non-musical influences or inspiration, I don’t know how to answer that. I’m inspired by the people that I have in my life. Whether or not they make music, not most people that I have around me, including my family, are pretty cool. They are very supportive of everything that I do, and I couldn’t ask for a better support system. They inspire me and influence me to write music that I never thought I would ever be able to write, so I shout out to them.
DS: You have just released a new single, “Lackadaisical.” Tell me everything about it!
Yes, we have released a new single called “Lackadaisical.” This song was the first song to come about in the process of what we were working on at the time, which I know is the follow-up question, so I guess I’ll just give a little teaser into that, but we do have an EP coming out this year. We’re taking a little non-traditional approach into releasing it rather than you know doing a few singles and then releasing the thing as a whole I think we’re going to release every song on it as a single just because we’re a small band and we’re really trying to get our name out there and the more consistently your releasing music and exposing yourself to the the airwaves the better chance you have of getting picked up or people hearing you and all these songs that we have coming up are really good we’re all super proud of them I am definitely proud of them I had a lot to do with writing them which was a little bit different from how we had done stuff in the past but I had a blast and it was very cathartic for me to talk about some really tough things that I had been experiencing at the time. “Lackadaisical” for example was, you know, I had moved to Gainesville in like late 2020 early 2021 and I looking back on that time beforehand I don’t really feel like I had much going on in my life or much of my own identity and it was an adjustment. When I moved I was finally like a fully fledged adult and had responsibilities and you know I tried the college thing and it didn’t work and I gave up that to pursue music and I felt like my anxiety in all aspects, whether it was social anxiety or just anxiety about life, existential dread, whatever you want to call it was at an all-time high. I just remembered like being “like damn like I really want to write music right now but I just I can’t handle anything so what makes me think I’m going to be able to sit down and write a song?” That kind of birth the idea of “Lackadaisical.” Our drummer, his name is Kyle, (and) we were jamming on a riff one day and I kind of like wrote the melody on the guitar and it was that like cadence of “Lackadaisical” and I just thought it fit super well and then I just kind of wrote what was on my mind. You know I would say lyrically it’s pretty simple it just gets right to the point. It’s kind of repetitive but it just drives in the fact that you know I was really like I didn’t know what the f*** to do with myself at the time
DS: Will you be releasing an album this year? Or an EP?
So yes, like I said before, we’re releasing an EP. It’ll be out entirely by the end of the summer, but we’re doing a single every six weeks, so after this one, we’ll have another song in 6 weeks and then follow it up with another one, and we only have six songs total, so yeah.
DS: What is the funniest that has happened since you started the band?
This is tough. I don’t know if I could nail a specific funniest moment. I mean, the current group that we have right now is me, our vocalist Dennis, our other guitarist Isaac, and then our drummer Kyle. We all kind of, you know, goof around, make jokes, and do silly things when we’re playing shows. But if I had to pick a specific moment that jumps out to me, which isn’t funny, it’s definitely a moment to remember when we did a DIY tour in 2019. The band was a different lineup at the time, for the most part, so I’m not referring to the same people. Still, we were driving from Alabama to, I believe, South Carolina through the night, and that night was our bassist’s turn to lock up the U-Haul and make sure everything was good. And dude did not do a good job at it. He might have been too high or just wasn’t really fully there because, you know, playing shows is exhausting. He didn’t fully lock it up, and we drove down the interstate. Some car pulled up next to us like, honking their horn like crazy and waving their hands at us, and turned out the door to our trailer was completely open. I was terrified that when we pulled over, you know, we would just see for miles, our gear sprawled throughout the interstate, but fortunately, we only lost two personal bags of some of the members. All of our gear was fine, which is why I can look back on it now and kind of laugh, but at the time, it was actually really scary. But yeah, definitely memorable for sure.
Santa Cruz, California melodic punks Too Bad Eugene just wrapped up a run of west coast shows with United Defiance and their touring companions were kind enough to record a bunch of footage. The end result is a brand new music video for “Fool’s Gold”, the opening track from the band’s awesome new record Battle […]
Santa Cruz, California melodic punks Too Bad Eugene just wrapped up a run of west coast shows with United Defiance and their touring companions were kind enough to record a bunch of footage. The end result is a brand new music video for “Fool’s Gold”, the opening track from the band’s awesome new record Battle Scars – out now on People of Punk Rock Records!
Your friends at DyingScene.com have the distinct honor of bringing you the exclusive music video premiere for “Fools Gold”. Check it out below! And after you do that, the very next thing you should do is click this link and buy the new Too Bad Eugene record. Heck, grab their last two records while you’re at it! People of Punk Rock reissued their Mike Herrera-produced 2000 debut At Any Rate and they’ve still got some copies of the band’s 2022 comeback LP Distance in stock.
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!
Emotions are categorized as primary – the initial emotions felt as a reaction to a situation – and secondary – the emotions that follow up as a response to the primary. Anger is usually categorized under the latter group; it is a human reaction which sometimes acts as a mechanism for self-defense when facing disgust, […]
Emotions are categorized as primary – the initial emotions felt as a reaction to a situation – and secondary – the emotions that follow up as a response to the primary. Anger is usually categorized under the latter group; it is a human reaction which sometimes acts as a mechanism for self-defense when facing disgust, sadness or surprise which would be some of the recognized primary emotions. With this in mind, the perspective in which we see bouts of anger completely changes since there is now another layer of complexity to the situation for analysis; it is not only a matter of just anger, but a primal response to the emotion caused by something.
In their latest LP, Behind The Concrete Veil by Chicago’s own hardcore and Oi! Punk band Lost Legion, lies an incredibly powerful exploration of the anger and underlying emotions experienced by the ever-growing feeling of disenfranchisement in today’s cultural setting; sometimes heightened by psychedelics, and sometimes caused by a collective deterioration of mental health. In terms of sound and content, the 10-track album features an ever-present dark and cynical tone, both musically and lyrically all throughout, which helps bring all the songs together cohesively, and allows the study of different topics without jarring changes between the tone and mood each song creates.
Without fully deviating from their sound established in previous eps and demos, in “Behind The Concrete Veil” the band crafts a significantly more defined tone that comes across as significantly more confident and assertive. Every musical element in this record works together in the same way a “war machine” would. The pummeling, explosive drums synchronize with the blade-sharp, dry, distorted guitars that set up the general sense of emotional dread that reoccurs throughout the LP. The metallic sound of the bass drives the songs forward coupled with unrelenting and aggressive vocals creating a rough and oppressive sound that alludes to the primal nature of mankind and the angst and frustration depicted all throughout.
Within the context of Oi! Punk andHardcore, this LP achieves what it sets out to do quite effectively. It is raw and visceral. In a way, it also seems quite contained within its genre. This album is not trying to redefine the musical style, or experiment within it. Whether or not that is a positive or a negative, it really depends on the listener, but in this specific sub-cultural context it sets a space for itself perfectly well; just like a puzzle piece in the most efficient way possible. The guitar licks, and riffs, for example, are not necessarily simple — a better way to describe them would be pragmatic, just like a war machine is supposed to be.
One notable track from this album would be the third one titled “The Animals We Used to Be.” This nostalgic song exemplifies one of the recurring themes explored, humanity’s repressed most basic and primal instincts in the dystopian present in which we live. The track is a longing cry for the freedom humans had and lost somewhere along the way, and the complexity of the frustration and sadness that comes with it. Conceptually, this idea seeps through “War Machine,” “Fangs,” and “Primitive,” creating a common thread all through the album.
While neither the band itself nor this LP are overtly political, to create an introspective exploration without touching on some of the fears and emotions that lead to some of the root causes for what are considered political topics is inevitable. “Silhouettes in Blue Lights” and “Disposed” are the two examples of the political undercoat of the album —the first one touches on the tension and divide in between the police and civilians, and the latter about the societal and economic use and disposal of humans for profit. There is an argument to be made for the whole album to be seen as political, but ultimately the human condition, the fears, the anger, the frustration, will always transcend politics, and are universal by nature.
Overall, this album is a great listen; it pulls elements from bands like The Effigies, and The Trouble, while still sounding much like themselves. The LP was released under the Basque punk and hardcore record label Medeku Diskat, and can be found in the band’s bandcamp site as well as Spotify.
South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale, specifically) pop-punk band A Decade At Sea just released their new EP Fuego in February and today we’re premiering the music video for one of the singles “From Crazy, With Love”. Check it out below and find the full EP on Spotify, Apple Music, or pretty much anywhere else you can […]
South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale, specifically) pop-punk band A Decade At Sea just released their new EP Fuego in February and today we’re premiering the music video for one of the singles “From Crazy, With Love”. Check it out below and find the full EP on Spotify, Apple Music, or pretty much anywhere else you can consume music on Al Gore’s world wide web.
If you wanna keep up with A Decade At Sea, might I suggest following the band on one or more of their social media accounts? I just might.
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!
Drive a few miles south on US19 from Dying Scene editor Screeching Bottlerocket’s hometown of Clearwater, FL and you’ll find yourself in St. Petersburg, FL. It’s just like Clearwater, but with slightly less Scientology. Why does this matter? Because the band we’re premiering a new song from today is St. Pete’s own Spanish Needles! The […]
Drive a few miles south on US19 from Dying Scene editor Screeching Bottlerocket’s hometown of Clearwater, FL and you’ll find yourself in St. Petersburg, FL. It’s just like Clearwater, but with slightly less Scientology. Why does this matter? Because the band we’re premiering a new song from today is St. Pete’s own Spanish Needles!
The band’s debut EP Sifting Through the Wreckage is due out on May 3rd and they just launched pre-orders for the purple colored vinyl (limited to 200 copies). If you pre-order the record from their Bandcamp before May 1st, you can get it for the low, low price of $12! At $1 per inch, that’s a value you simply cannot beat.
To coincide with this momentous occasion, your friends at Dying Scene are premiering a brand new track from the EP, track #4 “Dom DeLouise”, so go ahead and check that shit out below. Also! One last thing; Spanish Needles will be playing a record release show on May 31st at Bayboro Brewing. You can get a ticket and a copy of Sifting Through the Wreckage on vinyl for just $20. Another unbeatable value. Go here for more details.
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!
Main photo by Will Byington Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) is embarking on its final coast-to-coast U.S. tour. The tour also celebrates the 45th anniversary of the band’s seminal debut album, Inflammable Material. I caught up with SLF’s founder and frontman, Jake Burns, in advance of the tour’s commencement. Jake Burns founded Stiff Little Fingers in […]
Main photo by Will Byington
Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) is embarking on its final coast-to-coast U.S. tour. The tour also celebrates the 45th anniversary of the band’s seminal debut album, Inflammable Material. I caught up with SLF’s founder and frontman, Jake Burns, in advance of the tour’s commencement.
Jake Burns founded Stiff Little Fingers in his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1977. Burns grew up during the “The Troubles,” as the sectarian civil war raging in Northern Ireland was known. Inflammable Material, which included amongst its classic songs, “Alternative Ulster” and “Suspect Device,” addressed the political turmoil and violence all around it, and brought them to the attention of music fans, and others, worldwide. It is still considered one of the greatest and most important punk albums ever made.
As stated on the band’s site, “Along with The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned, Buzzcocks, they were there at the start of the punk rock movement and are still recording and touring today.“
Burns, and his wife Shirley Sexton, moved to West Virginia a few years back from Chicago, where they resided for almost two decades. Burns and bandmates, Ali McMordie; Steve Grantley; and Ian McCallum, kick off their US tour on May 1st, 2024, starting on the East Coast and heading west.
Mer Gold: Please tell us about the inspiration for the title of the tour and the latest track from the band. I understand it is inspired by the “Hate Has No Home Here” campaign in Chicago.
Jake Burns: Yes, that’s correct. That local campaign had such a powerful title that I wanted to share it with people outside of Chicago. I felt it applied not just to a neighborhood or a city but, in fact, to life. So, I broadened the scope of the idea in the lyric to be pretty much all-encompassing.
This is SLF’s last US coast-to-coast tour, how did you decide the time was right to make it the final one?
To be fair, my knees pretty much made the decision for me! LOL. Seriously, though, we are all getting older and SLF have always prided ourselves on a pretty high bar when it comes to live performance. So, I decided I wanted to scale back the amount of touring we undertake to try and keep that bar as high as possible. I’ve seen a number of bands move into their 60’s and try to play as often as they did in their 20’s. In a lot of cases, they simply can’t pull it off and “ease up on the gas” a bit. Understandable, but I didn’t want to do that.
Photo by Michael Steff
What are you looking forward to most on this tour? What can your fans look forward to?
Playing a lot of towns that I know I’ll probably never see again. Most of the places we’re playing have incredibly fond memories for me and I’m looking forward to seeing them one more time. Also, they now contain friends I’m hoping to catch up with, even briefly, especially in Chicago. The tour set will be much the same as the recent one in the U.K., which means we’re putting in a couple of songs we rarely, if ever, play, as well as most of the old favorites.
Will you miss touring coast to coast?
I’ll miss the people, but not the travel. That’s one of the main reasons for scaling back. But, we’ll still do the occasional festival if we get asked. They usually involve a few shows around the main date, so it’s almost certainly not the last time we’ll play over here, but it will be the last “long scale” trip.
Last year, you and your wife Shirley, moved from Chicago to a rural area in West Virginia. How did that decision come about for you both?
Well, without banging on about my age all the time as I don’t “feel” that old(!), but 65 seemed like a good time to look at slowing things down in all aspects of my life. Take a bit of time to “smell the roses”, if you know what I mean. Both Shirley and I have always lived in large-ish cities, Washington DC and Chicago in her case, Belfast, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Chicago in mine. So, I fancied living in a small town before I shuffle off this mortal coil. I looked at a lot of small towns, not just here in the U.S. but also back in Ireland and Scotland and we decided on this little one in West Virginia. Shirley has family in the State, so we’d been coming out this way for Thanksgiving etc for many years and knew we loved the area.
Is country life what you expected? I’ve seen some of the photos you have shared elsewhere, which are beautiful.
It’s fantastic. Everything we could have hoped for. We’re still finding new stuff after almost a year here. It’s such a change of pace to come from Chicago to a small town with around 3,500 residents. You know you’re not in a major city anymore when the main story on the local news is a runaway cow blocking the main intersection in town!
Photo by Will Byington
You are married to an American from the DC punk scene, and became a US citizen partially to vote against Trump. What is your reaction to his continued support? And in general, the support for those worldwide whose own autocracy flourishes?
I find it incredibly saddening. From the selfishly wealthy who can never see beyond their bank accounts when it comes to elections to those who have been duped into buying the scapegoat nonsense that his campaign relies upon, it’s all very dispiriting that this is where humanity is in the 21st century. That an obvious charlatan and snake oil salesman such as Trump can deceive and delude so many people, so easily it would seem, is heartbreaking. I refuse to believe that all of his “fanbase” are rabid racists, although a proportion undoubtedly are. I think that we have all been fed such a diet of mis-information over the past few years that it’s very difficult for some people to see the wood for the trees. And, the consequences of that are truly terrifying.
You are well known to be a supporter of Newcastle United FC of the English Premier League. How do you think your Club will finish out the season? Dying Scene readers will recall that you have noted your love for the NUFC in our World Cup special. Have you found a “Newcastle Pub,” in your new stomping grounds?.
A: No pub here, I’m afraid. I did buy the biggest television I could find and install it in the basement so I can watch the games. Newcastle have had a frustrating season to say the least. Hampered by an unbelievable injury list and also by over-achieving last year, I always felt we were a year ahead of schedule. As I said, the injuries haven’t helped, nor has Sandro Tonali’s ban. If they manage to get into any sort of European competition, that will constitute a decent season at this point.
Photo by Michael Steff
Stiff Little Fingers kicks off its final US Coast to Coast tour on May 1, 2024, at the Paradise in Boston, MA. Ricky Warwick, from Belfast, Northern Ireland. It ends (as solo headliner) at Observatory in Santa Ana, CA on May 26, 2024.
Dying Scene will be on hand for the Chicago stop at The Metro on May 10, 2024.
SLF will also be one of the headliners at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas on May 27, 2024. In August they play Rebellion Fest in Blackpool, England; followed by dates in Cork and Dublin in Ireland; and Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Photo by Craig O’Connell
Whether you are longtime fans of the band or are just discovering the punk legends, whether you have seen them live or have yet to do so, make sure to catch them on the road while you still can.
The terms “hard work” and “blood, sweat, and tears” get tossed around almost nonchalantly in the punk community, not necessarily because the words have lost their impact, but because they’ve become staples of what’s so great about the genre. Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi was pretty spot on in describing punk as “playing […]
The terms “hard work” and “blood, sweat, and tears” get tossed around almost nonchalantly in the punk community, not necessarily because the words have lost their impact, but because they’ve become staples of what’s so great about the genre. Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi was pretty spot on in describing punk as “playing music for music’s sake and being part of a family for family’s sake.” Bridge Nine Records founder Chris Wrenn lived by this mantra in pouring everything he had into backing the local hardcore acts he’d grown close with. And after years of DIY promotion and creative forms of funding, Bridge Nine expanded to become, not only a staple of the Boston hardcore community, but a full-blown label touting some of hardcore punks’ most influential names.
Diligent and untiring labels like Bridge Nine, ones knee-deep in the very scenes they represent, have helped fuel the genre, I’d say, as much as the artists themselves, if not more so. Formed in the summer of 1995 in a college dormitory and mainly focusing on 7″ releases, Bridge Nine was a way for Wrenn to contribute to the flourishing and ever-motivated punk scene of Boston, MA.
“With DIY and hardcore punk, obviously there is this drive, it’s a culture of doing things and contributing. It’s not a lot of people just watching from the sidelines, it’s people that kind of roll up their sleeves and say, “okay, I can do this, this is how I can contribute”. And for me, all my friends were in bands, but I wasn’t in a band. So I wanted a way that I could kind of give back, but also something that I could do to make me a part of the process.”
“So for me, it was starting a label, but I didn’t even mean to start a label necessarily, I was helping my friends put out seven-inches and having them pressed. Because in 1995, when I decided I wanted to do that, it wasn’t a unique idea. There were a lot of people my age that were putting out seven-inch records with their friends’ bands.”
But in pre-internet days, information for starting a label, or even having records pressed, especially on a smaller scale, was extremely hard to come by. Through the help of some friends-of-friends, Wrenn was able to learn enough to put into action what would eventually grow into a full-blown record label and a full-time career.
“So, when you decide like, “oh, I want to put out a seven-inch or I want to help my friends do it”, especially at that time, information was pretty hard to come by. It was pre-internet, so there was no “I’m just going to Google this and find out how to do it”. You had to find somebody who knew what they were doing or had done it before; I mean, there were no real instructions on how to start a record label or press records. There were books, but a lot of them were bullshit and they weren’t really at the level that I was trying to be at, which is fairly small.”
“I was connected with somebody who had a label, a friend of a friend. I didn’t know him, but literally just gave him a call and just said, “What do you know? I want to put out a record, where do I even start?” And this dude was cool. He gave me a list of contacts, kind of walked me through it, and told me where I should get a record pressed.”
“So our first handful of records were done at a pressing plant in Nashville, Tennessee called United Record Pressing. They’ve been around forever, I think since the sixties at least, it might even be older than that. I know that they were the first pressing plant, I think in the U.S., to press the Beatles records. So they’ve been around the block a hundred times, pressed all sorts of records. Basically, I just called them and said “I want to press a record”. And they’re like “Alright, send us a DAC cassette with the audio, send us the artwork for the center labels, and a money order for whatever number of dollars it was at the time.”
“And we still work with them to this day, they just pressed something for us this year. 28 years.”
And thus, Bridge Nine Records was born. The label’s early days were defined by seven-inch releases for local acts such as Tenfold, The Trust, and Proclamation, with the label’s first full-length coming in the form of 1999’s “Taken By Force” by Proclamation.
Chris Wrenn working in the basement art department of Tower Records on Newbury Street (1999)
After close to 5 years, Bridge Nine turned a corner. Wrenn joined forces with a group of close friends, the founding members of American Nightmare, and was able to take the brand across the nation and internationally.
“After about four years of just putting out seven-inch singles with friends’ bands, I started working with American Nightmare. Again, their first record was just another seven-inch single, I’d done a handful of them at the time, but they were the first band that was willing to just hit the road, tour, and get out of New England. Because a lot of the bands I was working with prior to that didn’t really even leave Connecticut or Massachusetts, kind of just stayed local. They were the first band that was like “we want to go hit the road, tour everywhere”.”
“For me, it was an opportunity for them to wave the Bridge 9 flag and for me to wave theirs and for both of us to go across the country, go over to Europe, and be ambassadors for what we were doing.”
“So it was probably Summer of 2000 when, instead of just being a local thing, kids all around the world are starting to pick up and get interested. It was still a few years after that before it was like “oh wait, I have to quit my job and just focus on this.”
With this spike in popularity and awareness, Wrenn was faced with a common problem among any subsect of the punk community: lack of funding. Wrenn’s day job in the Tower Records art department was enough to make ends meet personally, but nowhere near what was needed to fund a label. Through an equally creative and unique solution stemmed, what I would argue, is one of Boston’s most defining brands. What originated as a label-funding campaign fueled by bumper stickers and Yankees-hate merch, Sully’s Brand has now flourished into a celebration of Boston pride under the slogan “Believe in Boston”.
“It’s funny cause it’s never really been like a full-time job for me, it’s never been an exclusive thing. I’ve always had other things that I’ve done at the same time to make it happen.”
“Spring going into Summer of 2000, I had signed American Nightmare, I mean it was just like a loose deal. But they were in the studio, had big plans for their record and I needed money. I was working at Tower Records in the art department, making like $7.50 an hour. So I didn’t have money to even cover my own bills, much less push this band.”
“So friends of mine and I went to Fenway Park where the Red Sox play, it was like less than a mile from our apartment. I was already making all these bumper stickers and t-shirts and stuff for punk bands, so I started making stuff for sports fans and would sell it in the street to people leaving the games. Early on, it just riffed on the rivalry with the Yankees, we would make Yankee suck merch, sell to people leaving the Red Sox games.”
“It was wild! You would just be mobbed, just trading money and stickers and t-shirts. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy, it was like drug dealer money with significantly less risk.“
“So it was initially just an opportunity to go find money elsewhere and put it into putting out records. I had tried some of the more traditional routes at the time; my family wasn’t in a position to loan me money, I went to banks and couldn’t get a loan because I was fresh out of college, couldn’t even afford my student loan, much less another loan. I had no collateral, no car, no anything that I could put up to guarantee something.”
“We just had to figure out how to do it ourselves. After a few years, we raised a lot of money doing that, I mean we would come back after every game, a thousand bucks cash, and I would go the next day and buy money orders and send it to pressing plants and pay for magazine ads, all this stuff that the label needed and things that the bands needed. We even bought one of our bands, Terror, their first tour van with like bumper stickers.”
Summer of 2000 Fenway Courtesy of Kate Bowen
Funds were now taken care of, and the business took on a life of its own. What was initially used as a means to fuel the label soon emerged as a formal brand.
“After a few years, I realized this was a better business than putting out punk records and I wanted to expand on it. So I came up with the name Sully’s, started exploring other stuff that wasn’t based on the rivalry with the Yankees, started focusing on Boston stuff and it just grew into its own company. For 15, almost 20 years, they just kind of co-existed in our office, one whole side would be records and black t-shirts, and the other side was all sports stuff. And after a while, I started to meet people that were Have Heart fans, but also wore t-shirts from Sully’s; there was a lot of crossover.”
Just four short years after sales first began on Lansdowne St. outside of Fenway, Wrenn’s business was gifted some major media coverage with one of Boston’s favorite hometown heroes and a connection that stood the test of time over 15 years later. Ben Affleck’s love for Wrenn’s DIY brand eventually led to significant screen time in “The Town” [one of Nasty Nate’s all-time favorites], the Boston-set crime drama directed by, and starring Affleck.
Ben Affleck in “Killin With Schillin” Sully’s Brand tee, c. 2004
“Ben Affleck wore one of our shirts back in 2004, which was cool. It was during the run for the World Series. And he was, you know, kind of showing it off in the picture.”
“And then in 2009, he was directing a movie, that movie “The Town”. Their costume department reached out to us and said “Hey, we bought a couple of your shirts from a local store and we’d like to use them in this movie.” I didn’t know anything about the movie or what the potential was for it. But I was like “yeah, you’re welcome to, I’ll sign whatever. And while you’re at it, take a look at our website and if there’s anything else, let me know. They faxed me like a four-page handwritten list of everything they wanted. It was just like, holy shit. It was like eight of every shirt, like two different sizes.”
“So I drove them down to the costume department when they were filming, hit it off with the woman who was the costume designer, and we basically became their print shop for everything. We ended up having, I think, six of our t-shirts in the movie. One of our Believe in Boston shirts was on Ben Affleck in a scene, we had this shirt that said Irish Pub Boxing that was on Jeremy Renner, we made the hockey jerseys at the end when they all go out on the ice.“
“It was like Christmas for a while because all these people, they wanted to buy the shirts that the actors were wearing and they got them from us.”
From their early days of putting out local New England hardcore seven-inches to a few short years later being featured in major publications and more than one feature film, Wrenn’s DIY approach and motivated work ethic were common themes that allowed the label to grow to much more than a local brand. Wrenn’s dedicated mentality and laborious practice not only helped further punk rock’s grassroots reputation, but also served valuable in keeping Bridge 9 and Sully’s Brand afloat.
Labels are often the first to be overlooked in terms of the impact COVID-19 had on the music community. Artists and venues were at the forefront of attention when disaster struck, culminating in months of canceled tours and restricted gatherings. However, even businesses such as Wrenn’s, one’s enjoying mainstream success, were not invincible. Yet again, in true punk rock fashion, Wrenn was unafraid to get his hands dirty and got to work, utilizing the same DIY, creative approach that had proven successful over 20 years prior.
“Some of my best ideas have come when my back’s been against the wall, and with the pandemic and everything that came along with it, everyone’s back was against the wall, it was kind of like a do-or-die situation for a lot of people and a lot of businesses. And for me, you know, you just get creative. DIY has been fostered in the punk scene since the beginning. And, you know, I came into it wanting to use my hands and get involved. I think people in punk and hardcore are a little more, resilient, like they’re just willing to work harder, at least in my experience.”
“The pandemic was pretty tough because we had to let most of everyone go, temporarily at least. I had Sully’s, a screen printing business and Bridge 9, all three businesses were in the same space, and literally overnight, we had to send everyone home. It was a month, two months, we depended on mail order.”
“Thankfully, we had a pretty large inventory of stuff. So we started doing mystery boxes and had like these inexpensive, but good value mail order items that people could check out to help support us. And we were just kind of on this really low autopilot for a while.”
“Everything that Sully’s does as a brand is related to tourism and sports and both of those were gone. So I was just like sending packages to people, like just trying to get a buzz. So I looked up Ben Affleck, sent him a few shirts with a card that just said “Hey, it was the 10th anniversary of “The Town”, it was real sick that you included us in your movie and we’re still stoked about it. Here’s some stuff from Boston and thank you”.”
“And he wore all of that. Like every day he went out on these pandemic walks with his girlfriend wearing our shirts. Like that was really, really cool. And so we set up a few more things over the next year or so, and he was repping stuff from Bridge 9 and from Sully’s, which was very cool.”
Ben Affleck Sporting Sully’s Brand “Believe in Boston” Tee During COVID (2020)
Although business slowed for Bridge Nine and Sully’s brand during the 2019-2020 shutdowns, the COVID-19 storm was weathered and Wrenn was able to look forward. Both brands continued expansion and a new storefront location emerged, one much better suited for Wrenn’s objectives.
“It was Summer of 2020, we had been in this same building for 14 years, and our old landlord said he was selling the building. So we were in a period of uncertainty, we were kind of trying to find something new. And the new landlord comes in and basically says “I’m going to double your rent”.”
“I mean we had some good times there, but I wanted something new. So through the pandemic, we had to let everyone go, find a new building, and then basically renovate it and get it up and running. And, so the last few years have been some of the craziest, hardest working years I’ve had, but also some of the best because we’ve landed in a much cooler spot.“
Wrenn outside of the new Bridge 9/Sully’s Brand Headquarters
“It’s awesome, it has this big retail space up front. So we have our own record store, it has a big warehouse in back that we’re going to start having bands play, and it’s right on the main street in this kind of quiet, North of Boston town. It’s kind of weird to be selling Dead Kennedy’s records alongside Bridge 9 releases and Minor Threat and Slayer LPs, but here we are.”
“We got the keys on a Friday and then two days later, like on Monday, we get a phone call from a location scout for a movie. And it was for this movie called “The Tender Bar” starring Ben Affleck. And they’re like “we want to use your building for background in one of these scenes. So Ben Affleck came like two weeks later and filmed a scene in front of our building, which was just a crazy coincidence.”
“It’s kind of like “Oh man, the universe maybe is showing me that we’re on the right path.” We got a chance to chat with him briefly, thank him for repping the brand. And then his assistant asked us to design a t-shirt for him as their wrap gift. So, we ended up designing a shirt, it had his signature on the inside of it and we printed like 500 of them for anybody that worked in the film And that was cool, full circle moment.”
Through all of the excitement, from backing local bands in early Bridge 9 days to taking the label international, from selling bumper stickers and “Yankees Suck” merch outside Fenway to establishing a legitimate brand that’s been displayed in movies and major publications, Wrenn’s label was able to reach, and surpass, its 25th year of production. 25 years of operation holds much to look back on and Wrenn had difficulty choosing just one highlight.
“[Celebration for our 25th] was supposed to be 2020. We were going to do a whole bunch of cool stuff, but obviously, that all got kind of blown up. So we pushed that off to the 30th.”
“One of the cool things about doing a label for me has been finding new bands, bands that I get excited about and I want to help other people to know and be able to hear. And we’ve been able to do that with a bunch of bands, the earliest one probably being American Nightmare because those were guys I lived with. They had a demo, they wanted to record something, and being able to be there at the ground level was very, very cool, knowing their potential and kind of helping them realize it.”
“But it’s also really cool, and I found as just a music fan, to be able to work with bands that I liked before I even started the label. H2O, for example. I mean, I was a huge H2O fan before I even started Bridge 9. Never thought when I started the label that I would ever have a chance to work with them, and now we’ve been working together for 15 years. Or when I worked with Slapshot for the first time, I was a Slapshot fan in high school, going into college, and then to be able to put out a Greatest Hits record for them. That was 20 years ago, last fall, and to be able to continue to work with them over the years, it’s just, it’s cool.”
With 25 years in the rearview mirror and the 30th quickly approaching, Wrenn shows no signs of slowing down with either brand. During the COVID shutdown, Bridge 9 shifted their sights away from signing new artists and aimed at 25th-anniversary reissues.
“So we’ve had, I think nine different LPs that we’ve put out with like silver jackets and silver vinyl, kind of leaning into the 25th anniversary color.“
Chris Wrenn (center, holding sign) and members of Boston’s hardcore-punk scene peddling “Yankees Suck” merch at Fenway in the summer of 2000
With shutdowns and restrictions a thing of the past (hopefully for good), Bridge 9 has been able to shift back to a focus on signing new artists. 2023 saw the signing of 2 new artists, Heavy Hex and Incendiary Device, the release of 5 records and 7 exclusive variants, as well as assurance that much more is sure to come.
