It’s not every day an Alaskan band comes around… (well, Anchorage exports. They currently reside in Portland.) Yet, today we have Noise Brigade‘s new shizz for streaming straight from the mountains to the sea. Here’s a band who’s been putting out new music pretty steadily these past few years and staying busy on the road. They’ve come a long way since performing at their high school’s battle of the bands around the time of their conception, and even hit a few Warped Tour stages in Alaska before packing up their gear and heading down to the lesser 48.

Since that time they’ve released a few albums, a few singles including a skanky song about sad Christmas with no Turbo Man, and debuted an album on Manic Kat Records in May of last year titled This is Fine. They followed up that release with a busy show schedule making their way up and down the west coast and around the southwestern U.S., playing with some notable acts including The Movielife, SUCH GOLD, and The Flatliners. They’ve also recorded a new five song EP, Find What You Love and Let it Consume You to be released on May 10th on Manic Kat. Pre-orders for that are available here.

I’m pretty pleased to be able to bring you the first single off that EP today. I’m somewhat new to Dying Scene and I don’t know if I’ve been sleeping on these guys or what, but I think they’re dope! The new one is a track called “Color In” written from the outside perspective of watching a friend or loved one involved in an abusive relationship, not knowing how best to be a friend, and the frustrations inherent in that situation for all parties. The struggle is real, and it’s important to know that help is there if you seek it, but also it’s important to be the helping hand when you see a friend who’s down and out, or a stranger for that matter. Go make someone’s day undead scenesters. Here’s some pop punk. Stream “Color In” below.

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Knocked Loose, the Kentucky based hardcore outfit, come screaming out the gates once more with a new 3 track EP; Mistakes Like Fractures. Heavy, dark, and embodying all the best of beatdown hardcore, these 8 and a half minutes are well worth your time.

The title track, which opens this short 3 song package, is this dark powerhouse of a hardcore track. From the chorus screaming out “Mistakes like fractures,” to an ominous breakdown in “I followed the rabbit, I found my fucking ending,” the track is put together so well. Transitioning from this track into the next, ‘Slings and Arrows,’ their sound attacks from all sides. In the modern era of hardcore, it can seem difficult for a band to find a sound both unique and yet still very much rooted in the genre, but Knocked Loose emanate this angry, loud, and emotional presence that really does stand out.

Ending off this short piece is what I’d consider the shiniest of the 3 diamonds gathered here. ‘All My Friends’ is a fun track to listen to, but doesn’t let go of that darkness, and the breakdown could be one of the best I’ve heard in quite a while. Evoking thoughts of Code Orange with the alarm-like shrill guitar breaking in at times, this track especially is sign of great things to come for one of the premiere modern hardcore bands. Knocked Loose kick some teeth in with this EP, and I can’t wait to see what the next album has in store for us.

Mistakes Like Fractures was released on April 4th, via Pure Noise Records. You can check out the EP below.

5/5

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Swedish punk legends Millencolin have released a music video for “Sour Days”, the latest single from their recent Epitaph Records album “S.O.S.”.

The band are currently on tour in Europe, and will perform in the UK at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival at the end of May.

Check out the video and their full list of upcoming dates below.

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Buck-O-Nine is back! As if they ever left. Their new album Fun Day Mental drops today on Cleopatra Records, but that’s not all… The guys have been gracious enough to hook Dying Scene up with the video premiere for “Tuff Rude Boy”. Here’s a fun one about being frustrated in a stupid ass job and then finally saying, “Fuck it! I quit!”

The video features exclusive live footage as well as snippets of the good times, recorded and edited in-house over the years by Buck-O-Nine bass player, Andy Platfoot. If you’ve ever wondered how a legendary 3rd-wave band likes to spend their time on the road, you can get a great glimpse at those antics in the video below. Enjoy yourselves, rudies! Cheers!
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Geoff Palmer, of New Hampshire’s The Connection/The Guts glory, has a solo album dropping June 7th on Stardumb Records (EU) and Rum Bar Records (US) titled Pulling out all the Stops. The album is available for pre-order on CD and streaming with bonus tracks (via Rum Bar) here, and on red or black vinyl and 7″ here in the US (via The Machine Shop) and here for Europe.

“There’s nothing left to do. I’m giving up and giving into you.” is the chorus which breaks through the catchy harmonic cadence in this newest single, “Giving In” off the upcoming record. We’re streaming the music video below which has an interesting nostalgic quality of a lazy Saturday morning watching the spinning grooves of a record and the needle, or the dog. “You are 1989 and I am East of Berlin… I’m giving up my walls for something new.”

Geoff Palmer and his associated acts have several times been featured by Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen/Sirius FM Underground Garage) for having the “coolest song in the world”. He has also recorded with The Queers under the name Geoff Useless on their Everything’s O.K. and Punk Rock Confidential albums. His music goes well with Alkaline Trio, The Hard-Ons and The Queers. Stream the video for “Giving In” below. [Read more…]

Worchestershire punks, Project Revise are unveiling a new music video via Dying Scene today. “Time Will Carry You” is a goofball rendition of the timeless tale of man’s ambition gone mad, and playing God with punk rock forces we can’t even begin to comprehend… hell, I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on this hilarious new video. Whatever it is, we’re all pretty excited about it… like, jumping-up-and-down-and-flailing-our-hands-around excited.

Project Revise goes well with Goldfinger and New Found Glory, so long as they are “completely operational and all of [their] circuits are functioning perfectly.”

“Time Will Carry You” was originally released on their EP, Songs That Sound Like Songs, in December of 2017. Since that time, they’ve sold out of the original, put out a video for every track on the album and re-issued an extended edition. This band likes to be in front of the camera, and I’m sure there will be plenty more of this awesome wholesome goodness coming our way in the near future. So stay tuned – and don’t worry crusties, I’m not talking about your instruments.

This is a good video for pop-punk and sci-fi junkies alike. Stream “Time Will Carry You” below.

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Ever since I heard that first self-titled EP, I’ve been rooting for Dead Bars. They write simple songs that can paint a world in four lines of lyrics; they have big melodies that translate into bigger singalongs. They tap into that communal, we’re-all-in-this-together punk spirit—and seeing them at Fest this last year, I saw for myself how the gospel had spread. And why not? Dead Bars have continued to grow in new and interesting ways while still honoring what they are at their core—a band of big dreamers. They’ve gone from an Off With Their Heads-adjacent, No Idea Records gritty pop-punk band to a loud, hopeful band of rock ‘n roll devotees. Dream Gig was the first step in a peaceful coup, but it’s on Regulars where the dream is realized.

What’s apparent immediately is just how good Regulars sounds. With Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Afghan Whigs) wearing the production hat, Dead Bars have never sounded better. This is a band that doesn’t pull from a specific sound as much as a specific spirit. Regulars is KISS, Tom Petty, The Clash, Motorhead, The Replacements, and Nirvana, even if they sound like a sort of minimalist Lawrence Arms. The important thing is this: the guitars are loud and distorted, the drums sound like thunder, and the words are true. Dead Bars is the Prometheus of rock ‘n roll, stealing pyrotechnics from the Gods to set the small stage ablaze.

This Ramones-y devotion to the power of music is on immediate display with album opener “Freaks.” Dead Bars are trading in hope and optimism—and it’s clear they hold an earnest belief in the power of music. On “Freaks”, this optimism rears its head as unity, as the chorus rages: “This one’s for the freaks, you’re all sick freaks!” It’s a rallying cry, as gritty as it is catchy, and I’d put a good wager that in a dark club, with a cold beer, it’ll be an anthem for all the like-minded weirdos who still see rock ‘n roll as kin to salvation.

It’s this direction that makes Regulars feel like Dead Bars have reached their own personal enlightenment, as if, release after release, they’ve shed their non-essential parts and now, with their sophomore album, have embraced the truest form of themselves. Which means, they’re songwriting is as great as ever. Minimalist, heart wrenching, with a sly sense of self-deprecating humor.

And with lyrics like, “I’m growin’ up, yeah, I’m growin’ up/ but I just threw up,” “Pink Drink” is about as simple and direct as you can be. Still, this song, with probably about a short verse full of unique lyrics, captures a lifetime. Even the title (which doubles as its chorus) is evocative. We all know what a pink drink is, we’ve seen them in bars, we’ve had friends make fun of us for ordering them. They represent taking your medicine with a spoonful of sugar, they’re a confectious means to an end, and in “Pink Drink” they’re also a sign of world-weariness, of getting older and not having the energy to maintain appearances. The burn of whiskey, the bite of vodka loses its luster—and you look around, and realize no one’s impressed anymore. That’s “Pink Drink.” The trials of growing up have always been at the heart of Dead Bars—but there’s something empowering and defiant in the way they capture that angst and then also stick their flag in it. On “Pink Drink, “No Tattoos,” and others—could’ves and should’ves are confronted head-on, and maybe a pink drink won’t save you, but maybe it will—if only for tonight.

The title track, “I’m a Regular,” is a clear highlight of the album, capturing Dead Bars at their most intimately anxious. Ushered in by ringing feedback, vocalist John Maiello snarls, “I’m a regular here, but nobody knows my name.” It actually highlights one of my favorite things about Dead Bars—the microcosm of their scope. We feel millions of little things a day, flights of fancy and minor frissons of panic, all instantly recognizable and largely left totally unspoken. “I’m a Regular” examines a funny, melancholy intrusive thought with rock ‘n roll gusto, bursting forth into a huge name-dropping chorus (“And it’s way Tom Petty, I’m livin’ like a refugee!”) We may not be living in a Cheers episode, but the internal dilemma (why the fuck not?) roars loud and clear. “I’m a Regular” is a snotty, riotous ode to living under the radar.

C.J. Frederick, original member and lead six-stringer of Dead Bars, is a strong presence on Regulars—where for the first time, Dead Bars truly feels like a ‘guitar band.’ This time around, the songs are distinctively riffy, with big muscular licks opening songs like “Time Takes Away”, “Rain,” and “I Need You.” The propensity for solos is also higher and welcome, bringing the music and lyrical direction into total synchronicity. For a group of guys who worship rock music, what’s more religious than a sick trilling solo? Here, they aren’t just talking the talk, they’re now walking it too, emulating the magic as if they’re the only ones who can keep it alive.

Dead Bars are underdogs, and when they aren’t, well, I’m not sure if they’ll be Dead Bars anymore. Regulars prove the band can put forth a product that is both polished and cohesive, and still be those same scrappy dudes who daydream of killer riffs and big singalongs. Somewhere in between the rock ‘n roll dream and the gutter realism of DIY punk is Dead Bars, and with Regulars, as always, it’s a pleasure to see where the two meet.

5/5

Bristol UK pop punks Weatherstate have released their latest single “Medicate” The video for the track plays homage to the classic Green Day video for “Basket Case”, and has earned a thumbs up from Mike Dirnt himself already.

The single follows up from ‘Sympathy’, ‘Brain Dead’ and ‘Rotten Lungs’, all taken from the band’s debut album “Born A Cynic”, which is release via Failure By Design in the UK and Wiretap Records in the US on 10 May. The band play Bournemouth (2nd May) at The Anvil, London (10th May) at Sebright Arms and Bristol’s Booze Cruise (24th may) to support the release.

Check out the video using the player below.

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If you’re a fan and follower of Lucero, you’re no doubt aware that the chance for inclement weather surrounding the band’s Family Block Party, an annual day-long outdoor festival held at Minglewood Hall in their hometown of Memphis, Tennesee, is generally somewhere in the neighborhood of 100%. In fact, the trend dates back to pre-Block Party years, when they held a similarly themed Family Picnic in frontman Ben Nichols’ birthplace of Little Rock, Arkansas. And so it was no surprise when a daily check of the weather forecast last week devolved from “hey, this doesn’t look too bad,” to “oh well, bring a poncho” to “oh my god, we might get a tornado” in the lead-up to Saturday’s festivities. And while no tornadoes touched down in Memphis (the closest did, however, make a deadly appearance a couple hour drive down the road into Mississippi), Saturday did bring with it a deluge and thunderstorm of nearly Biblical proportions, causing more than a few game-time decisions, a bunch of mad merch-table dashes, and an altered venue and lineup that made for perhaps the most unique – and most classically-Lucero – Block Party to date.

Local musician Ben Abney and his band, The Hurts, were due to kick off festivities in the mid-afternoon on the stage set up in Minglewood Hall’s adjacent parking lot amidst the myriad merch tents and craft beer and food vendors, and they did just that to a crowd that was admittedly thin as a result of weather-phobic late arrivers that may or may not have included yours truly. It was from here that all hell proceeded to break proverbially loose, as the rain continued to fall harder and harder and was accompanied by frequent local thunder and lightning. There are rules surrounding lightning strikes and electrical equipment, and I’m not going to pretend to be enough of an electrical engineer to understand them. What I do know is that there was a stage full of instruments and backline equipment and the venue’s main PA and soundboard equipment were sitting in the middle of a parking lot that was rapidly turning into a pond. All of it, due to the severity of the storm, was untouchable. So as the vendors and merch crews broke down their displays and lugged everything inside at breakneck speed, the actual “show” people came to see had stalled out; more tickets had been sold than the 1600 capacity indoor venue could accommodate, and there was no real sound equipment from which to hear anybody anyway, so the next ninety-or-so minutes consisted of a club’s worth of people wondering what, exactly, would happen next.

What happened next could have been…well…ugly. The bars were open and the food was located outside and across the parking lot from the venue. Couple that with a lack of discernible information about how things were going to proceed and you had an equation that could have gone rather poorly. Slowly but surely, however, the night turned pretty special. The Mighty Souls Brass Band, who’d been slated to make a few between-set appearances strolling through the outdoor grounds, brought their New Orleans-via-Memphis brass sound indoors to help keep the crowd fired up on the music at hand. Finally, Austin Lucas, who’d been slated to play the outdoor stage next up, accompanied by a full band, grabbed an acoustic guitar, made his way to the front of the stage area in the main concert hall at Minglewood, and belted out a handful of tunes not only unplugged but un-mic’d, accompanied by only the crowd that had started to gather once they realized something was happening. It’s worth mentioning that Lucas had played a full-band show in the UK the night before, hopped a flight back to the States, and made it to Memphis about an hour before he was supposed to play. Had the show gone as planned, his performance would have been impressive; as it turned out given the circumstances, it was downright Herculean.

While Lucas was playing on the floor, the venue’s staff was plugging in mics and lights on the stage in an effort to make the best with what they had around them. Lucero’s lead guitar player Brian Venable took the stage and filled in the faithful that, while they still couldn’t access the sound equipment that was still outside the venue, there’d be stripped down sets from the shows performers on the big stage for the rest of the night. What would have been an outdoor Family Block Party was now going to be, essentially, an indoor Family Lock In. Lucero frontman Ben Nichols kicked things off by running through a few tracks on his own before calling Lucas back out where they shared vocal duties on the Lucas-requested Lucero track “Slow Dancing.” Lucas then played another of his own songs, the title track from his latest album Immortal Americans.

Will Hoge followed with his unique brand of rabble-rousing, country-tinged songwriter fair. Hoge is a Tennessee native who’s made a living challenging not only the status quo in Nashville, but challenging a series of long-held cultural beliefs about just what it means to be a white man living in the Bible Belt. Hoge has been called the “Tennessee Troublemaker” for good reason, making a career out of asking difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions of his listeners. While he was also supposed to play with a full band on the big outdoor stage, getting the chance to see him on just acoustic guitar gave his handful of songs a little extra poignancy. Charlie Starr of Georgia rock band Blackberry Smoke followed. His band were due to be main support for this episode of the Lucero Family Block Party, but the above-mentioned circumstances found Starr also playing solo acoustic style on the indoor stage. While Blackberry Smoke’s normal sound is steeped in modern Allman Brothers/Skynyrd Southern grooves, hearing Starr play solo and unaccompanied gave more of a Laurel Canyon/Neil Young vibe to the festivities. Ben Abney also returned for a bit of an encore, getting the opportunity to play on a stage that was A) dry and B) in front of hundreds of people unlike his full-band, rain-soaked set earlier in the day. Abney has a punk rocker’s past, and as a solo artist has got a penchant for writing tear-jerking soul-filled folk songs, all of which were perfect for a Lucero crowd.

Introduced by Lucero bass player/”spirit animal” John C. Stubblefield, Ben Nichols took the stage again for what would be the event’s headline set, a bit of a seat-of-your-pants ninety-ish minute set that included both Nichols’ solo work and a bunch of Lucero staples. The set kicked off with Nichols accompanied by his trusty sidekick Rick Steff on accordion for songs like “Nights Like These,” “Davy Brown,” and the gut-wrenching “Darby’s Song,” the latter of which I don’t think I’d heard live before. Nichols brought out Mighty Souls’ Jason Yasinsky (trombone) and Jim Spake (saxophone) – the latter of who appeared as the centerpiece of Lucero’s horn section for a number of years – for a handful of tracks that included “Sixes & Sevens,” “On My Way Downtown” and “Can’t You Hear Them Howl.” Nichols leaned heavily on audience requests as the night progressed, and frequently made mention of his respect for the audience for hanging in there in spite of the less-than-ideal circumstances that the weather created. And so while those in attendance didn’t have the opportunity to catch some of their favorite full bands outside under the Memphis sky, those that stuck it out were eventual witness to an event that was uniquely special in its own right.

Check out our full photo rundown below!

 

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New San Diego hardcore punk band The Undertaking! are premiering their debut EP, Scavengers, a day in advance for all you saavy young Dying Scene readers out there. It’s five-songs of adrenaline fueled, guitar heavy punk rock and roll mayhem clocking in at just under twenty minutes, inspired by time spent away from the stage and that unsettling craving feeling that calls us all back home to hardcore and punk rock music.

Scavengers is being self-released, with the aid of Sassafras Management, on April 19th and will be made “officially” available for purchase and streaming at all the regular spots then. It goes well with Dillinger Escape Plan and Boy Sets Fire. Check out the jams below, and don’t sleep on these happy-go-angsty music-loving punx.

All artwork for the album was handled by renowned artist, Dave Quiggle, (Disney, Adventure Time, Star Trek, Foo Fighters) and production credit goes to Daniel Bourget.

 

 

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